When All is Said and Done
by keephie-13
Summary: It all started with a prank... This is a SoKeefe story, but I will definitely include other ships too. Rated T for mild romance/kissing, dark themes and mild coarse language.
1. A Little Fun

Sophie tapped her fingers on her desk. It took all of her willpower not to fall asleep listening to her Elvin History mentor, Sir Helton lecture the class about some elvin treaty that had taken place in the eighteenth century. She glanced around the room. All of the other prodigies looked just as bored as she was. Two girls at the back of the room were whispering to each other. Another was braiding her own hair. Under his desk, Keefe was hunched over a vial of obnoxiously green liquid. Whatever it was, it wouldn't end well, knowing Keefe. Although Keefe was older than Sophie, he had failed Elvin History enough times that he was in her grade level now.

 _Keefe_ , Sophie transmitted. Keefe suddenly looked up from the vial, glancing around the room in surprise. His eyes fixed on Sophie.

 _Stop staring at me_ , Sophie hissed. _You're attracting attention. Look down at your desk and pretend you're bored._

 _Foster, I don't need to pretend,_ Keefe said, chuckling to himself. But he turned his attention back to the desk and continued fidgeting with the vial.

 _Tell me about it_ , Sophie grumbled. She checked the clock impatiently, but it was still twenty minutes until the end of class. _Ugh,_ she groaned. _At least we don't have to take Elvin History next year_.

 _Yeah,_ Keefe agreed, but he seemed distracted. Sophie glanced over to his desk to see that he had retrieved another vial from his pocket, this one containing pink liquid. He was trying to untwist the cap, which had somehow gotten stuck.

 _Keefe, stop!_ Sophie insisted. She didn't know what he was up to, but it didn't look good. _What even is that?_

 _Nothing_ , Keefe replied, but a grin spread across his face. That definitely wasn't good. Meanwhile, Keefe had managed to unscrew the vial and was pouring the pink liquid into the other vial. A faint scent filled the room, like a mix between week-old dirty socks and rotten eggs. Sophie plugged her nose, and she saw a few other prodigies do the same. Keefe put the empty vial back in his pocket and closed the cap on the filled vial. The liquid had now turned to a clear, almost transparent colour. Satisfied, Keefe made sure the cap was screwed tight and tucked the mixture into his pocket too. Then he leaned back in his chair, stretching his arms behind him.

 _Keefe, what in the world is that? Please don't tell me this is another prank or something_. Sophie was reminded of the Great Gulon Incident, which was apparently Keefe's greatest prank, but he wouldn't tell her anything about it. However, she hadn't given up on trying to figure out what it was. _Is this the Great Gulon Incident, Part 2?_ she asked.

 _I see what you're trying to do, Foster._ Keefe snickered. _And the answer is no. I'm not telling you._

Sophie sighed. _You didn't answer my other question. What are you doing?_

 _You'll see tomorrow morning_ , Keefe said, an evil grin spreading across his face. His ice-blue eyes twinkled in anticipation. Sophie hoped that her friend wouldn't do anything too stupid. Of course, for Keefe, there was no 'too stupid'.

 _Fine_ , Sophie groaned _. As long as it doesn't involve me._

 _It involves you laughing. But that's it. I promise._

 _Okay_ , Sophie agreed. Laughing was fine. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad after all. Keefe just wanted a little fun. Nothing too disastrous could happen, right?

 _That would be true for anyone else, but this was_ Keefe _she was talking about,_ Sophie reminded herself. Oh well. She would find out tomorrow. Until then, she would just have to sit through the rest of her Elvin History class.

Fifteen minutes later, the bell sounded and the prodigies rushed to get out of the classroom. Sophie made her way through the crowd and into the hallway with her locker. She licked the DNA strip, thankful that the flavour for today was strawberry and not something worse. Clearly, it hadn't been Elwin's turn to choose the flavour.

"Hey, Sophie," Biana said, opening her locker, which was next to Sophie's. "Have fun in Elvin History?"

"Loads," Sophie replied, rolling her eyes. "Listen, I think Keefe's planning something."

"By something, you mean a prank, right?"

"Yeah. He had this vial of foul-smelling stuff, and he told me I would see what it was tomorrow morning."

"That doesn't sound good," Biana said. But she didn't seem too worried as she pulled her pink, sparkly lunchbag from her locker. After all, Keefe pulled pranks like this all the time. Maybe Sophie was just being paranoid. She took her own lunchbag and she and Biana headed to the cafeteria, where she had arranged to meet her friends. They were all already sitting at one of the tables, where Dex was showing off his latest gadget. Tam and Linh sat next to him. One the opposite site of the table sat Keefe and Fitz. Biana took the seat next to her brother, and Sophie pulled up a chair next to Linh.

"How were your alchemy classes?" she asked. The twins were both new to Foxfire this year, as they had finally been allowed to leave Exillium after saving the Lost Cities from the Neverseen. They had both been placed in Sophie's year

"Awesome," Linh said, at the same time that Tam said "Horrible." Sophie laughed. Linh had discovered she had a talent for alchemy and rather liked it, although that may have been because she had a different mentor. Tam, on the other hand, had Lady Galvin, and sucked at alchemy, almost as much as Sophie herself.

"What happened?" Sophie asked.

"Oh, I just set the curtains on fire, no big deal. Lady Galvin was so _pleased_."

"At least you didn't set her prized cape on fire," Sophie said, remembering alchemy classes from years ago. She laughed, taking out her sandwich from her lunchbag. She was happy to be with all her friends, having fun, talking and laughing. But she still couldn't shake that small feeling of anxiety about what Keefe had planned for tomorrow.

 **A/N: To tell the truth, I wrote this chapter while I was sitting in my own class, bored (although it was tech class, not elvin history :D). They say to write about what you know, so why not? This is a SoKeefe story but there will be other ships too. I'll try to update often but homework makes it kinda hard. I'll update at least once every Saturday.**

 **Please read and review!**


	2. Telepathy and Roosters

"Have a good day at school, Sophie." Edaline handed Sophie her lunchbag. Along with a sandwich, she had packed some of the ripplefluffs she had baked last night, knowing that Sophie loved them. But she hadn't told Sophie. It would be a surprise.

"Love you, Mom. Bye, Dad," Sophie said, hugging each of her parents. Then she headed up to the Leapmaster on the third floor. "Foxfire," she said, stepping into the beam of light as it whisked her away.

Sophie arrived at Foxfire and headed to her locker. She was a bit early, so she didn't see any of her friends yet. She grabbed her school supplies from her locker and headed down the hallway. Her first class was Telepathy, so she made her way to Tiergan's classroom. Tiergan was already there, but Fitz wasn't. Sophie sat down in one of the two chairs and waited.

Fifteen minutes later, Fitz walked into the classroom, looking as pristine and Vacker-ish as ever. "Hi, Sophie," he said. He sat down in the chair opposite her.

"Hi, Fitz," Sophie replied. _Where have you been?_ She wanted to ask. Class had technically started three minutes ago. But she waited. There would be time to ask later.

"Now that you're both here," Tiergan said, with a pointed glance at Fitz, "you can start your training. Today you're going to practice reading each others' emotions, then we can do a little exercise."

"Alright," Sophie said. Reading emotions was something she was good at. _So, who wants to go first?_ She asked Fitz.

 _I'll read your emotions first, if that's okay with you_ , Fitz said.

Sophie didn't need to read Fitz's mind to know that he was hiding something. Maybe he had been late for some reason he didn't want Sophie to know about, and he was trying to give himself time to compose his emotions before Sophie could read them and see the secrecy. _Stop that,_ Sophie hissed to herself. _Stop suspecting your friends of everything. They're your friends. Just because of everything that happened with the Neverseen, doesn't mean you need to mistrust everyone._

 _Sure,_ Sophie said to Fitz. _I'm ready when you are._ She pushed the suspicion from her mind and focused on all of her other emotions. She felt Fitz enter her emotional center.

A few minutes later, Fitz was done. _You're relieved because Silveny transmitted to you yesterday and her pregnancy is going well. You're a little grumpy because Grady said you'd have to help him bathe the verminion tonight. But you're also really worried and apprehensive about something. And I can't tell what._

 _It's nothing,_ Sophie said. _Keefe just told me yesterday he was planning a prank for Elvin History class, that's all. And you know how Keefe is._

 _True,_ Fitz chuckled _. But it's just a harmless prank. Keefe's pranks never actually hurt anyone. They're just funny._ Sophie immediately felt a bit better, and she jokingly wondered if maybe Fitz was secretly an Inflictor. But he was right. It really was nothing to worry about. She was just on edge these days.

Next, it was Sophie's turn to read Fitz's emotions. She found lots of swirling colours in his emotional center, but nothing suspicious in the least. She soon forgot about his tardiness and focused all her energy on her telepathy.

When they had both finished reading each other's minds, Tiergan spoke, bringing them both back to the real world and out of their heads. "Are you ready to start your exercise?" Sophie and Fitz nodded. "This exercise will help you develop your Cognate bond and will test your abilities to read each other's thoughts and to project images. Sophie, I want one of you to think of any image, preferably one Fitz hasn't seen, and project it into your notebook. Then Fitz will see the picture in Sophie's mind and try to project the image into his notebook, as close to the original as he can. Then you can switch roles. Alright?" Sophie and Fitz nodded again. "Get your notebooks."

Sophie and Fitz both produced thick, black leather-bound notebooks from their bags. The notebooks were already half-full of random images. Sophie flipped to an empty page. Then she tried to think of an image Fitz wouldn't have seen.

Her old human house? No, Fitz had been there. And he had also already seen her parents, and her cat, Marty. Then she thought of the perfect image. Turning her back, she projected it into her notebook. I'm ready, she told Fitz.

Fitz entered her mind. He carefully studied the image, making sure to notice every detail. Then he looked down at the empty page in his notebook, projecting the image. "I'm done," he announced, and Sophie burst out laughing.

The image she had originally thought of was a rooster from when she'd visited a farm when she was little. The rooster in Fitz' notebook looked mostly like a normal rooster, except the tail was bright green and even bigger than usual, and the rest of the rooster was a vivid orange. "What?" Fitz asked innocently. In response, Sophie put her own book next to Fitz's, comparing the two images. Then Fitz laughed as well.

Sophie and Fitz took turns projecting images, and laughed so hard that their stomachs hurt. It seemed only a matter of minutes when the bell rang, signalling the end of class. Still giggling at Fitz's latest picture, this one of her uncle's pickup truck, Sophie gathered up her things and headed to her next class. She had Elvin History. Butterflies rose in her stomach. With all the excitement of Telepathy, she had forgotten about Keefe's prank. But she was still too happy to pay much mind to it.

Sophie was a few minutes early to Elvin History, but Keefe was already there, not surprisingly. He was standing over Sir Helton's desk, pouring the vial from yesterday into Sir Helton's ever-present glass of water. Grinning like mad, Keefe closed the vial and sat in his seat, pasting a happy, innocent smile onto his face and tucking the vial into his pocket. Sophie's nerves tingled in apprehension, but she harnessed the feeling, tucking it into the ball of emotions under her ribcage, for use for Inflicting later. She sat in her own seat, two desks behind Keefe's, wondering what the heck it was he had put in their Mentor's water.

At that moment, Sir Helton walked into the room. He sat down and rummaged through some papers, tucking a couple into a file folder. Then he stood, ready to start his daily lecture. He cleared his throat.

And took a sip of his water.

 **A/N: Dun dun dun! Cliff-hanger time! You'll see what happens next week! *chuckles evilly***

 **And before anyone says anything, I know I said I'd update every Saturday. But because of the tornadoes I lost power Friday evening and it only came back late last night. So I had no WiFi, and I couldn't publish the chapter. Anyways, the chapter is here now! Thank you for reading and please enjoy the story!**


	3. The Prank

Sir Helton replaced the glass on his desk and stood, clearing his throat. "Today we're going to be learning about the elves' influence on the War of 1812. Everyone, please take out your notebooks and write down key information, as this is important information and may be on your next test." Nevertheless, only a few prodigies grabbed a pen and paper. Sophie didn't. Keefe didn't. Keefe was fidgeting excitedly, clearly waiting for his prank to happen. Whatever he had put in their Mentor's drink must be slow acting.

Unfortunately for Sophie, that meant she had to sit through another one of Sir Helton's history lectures. Eventually she grabbed a pen and paper too, but instead of writing notes, she doodled a picture of Silveny and Greyfell. Then she added in an image of the baby alicorn Silveny was expecting. She missed the alicorns at the Sanctuary.

Half an hour later, when Sophie had finished her alicorn picture and was now drawing a beautiful forest background, she heard a strange squeaking noise from the front of the classroom and looked up. It was Sir Helton. Whatever Keefe had put in his drink had caused his voice to raise several octaves from his usually deep and scratchy voice, and it also seemed to have messed with his brain, because half of what he was saying didn't make sense; it was just random squeaky noises. "So when General Isaac Brock - SQUEAK!" The entire class burst out laughing. Sophie was reminded of the Minions from an old human movie she had watched with her sister.

And what's more, Sir Helton's hair had changed colour. Instead of being its usual dark, thick gray, it was bright magenta with stripes of lime green. Whatever Keefe had done had caused quite a stir. Apparently Sir Helton didn't realize that anything was wrong, because he kept lecturing the class. "When Brock - SQUEAK - Detroit... What? What's so funny?" Sir Helton exclaimed when he realized the class was laughing again.

"Nothing, carry on," one prodigy said, but the rest of the class couldn't hold in their giggles.

"That's it! I'm -SQUEAK- Magnate Leto," Sir Helton cried, reaching for his Imparter. Sophie was near the back of the room and couldn't hear the conversation, but she heard something about calling Elwin. Sophie wished she could have seen Magnate Leto's face when he turned on his Imparter to see Sir Helton squeaking at him with colourful hair.

Two minutes later Magnate Leto and Elwin burst into the room, and for once, Elwin wasn't coming for Sophie. She could tell he was trying not to laugh to himself as he escorted a still-squeaking Sir Helton from the room. Sophie could hear him wailing in protest. "But I'm - SQUEAK! - nothing wrong with me!" Sophie and the other prodigies laughed, but soon fell silent when they realized Magnate Leto had walked to the front of the room and was glaring down at the prodigies, his black hair still immaculately oiled.

"Who is responsible for this?" he asked, his eyes scanning over the prodigies. They settled on Keefe, who was doing a good job of looking innocent. _He looks kind of cute when he does that_ , Sophie thought, but then she chided herself. This was serious, and she shouldn't be thinking thoughts like that. "Was it you, Mr. Sencen?" Magnate Leto growled.

"N-no, sir, why would it be me?" Keefe said. Sophie stifled a laugh. Someone pulls a prank at Foxfire. Who would _ever_ suspect Keefe? He _never_ pulls pranks. Magnate Leto wasn't convinced either. Besides, Sophie knew the true identity of Magnate Leto. He knew Keefe better than he let on to the other prodigies, so he knew about the boy's exuberant nature.

"Keefe, come to my office. _Now_ ," Magnate Leto said, and Keefe meekly stood and followed him to the door. But just before he left, he turned around and winked at Sophie. "Your class is dismissed," Magnate Leto called over his shoulder.

There was a moment of shocked silence, before the prodigies all started cheering and talking at once.

"That was hilarious!"

"I've never had a more interesting Elvin History class!"

"Did you see his hair?"

"Best of all, our class is dismissed an hour early!"

Sophie gathered up her books and headed to her locker. All of her friends were still in class, so she took the time to finish up some of her Universe homework. She liked the Universe, and it was probably her favourite class aside from all of her ability sessions. She liked mapping the stars, and she was good at it, too, thanks to her photographic memory. But today she was too distracted and her mind kept drifting off to Keefe's prank. It had been funny, but Keefe would surely get in a lot of trouble, even though Mr. Forkle was the one punishing him. She didn't need to see the future to know that she would hear lots of complaints about detention in the coming weeks. Sophie shuddered, remembering all of the times she herself had been in detention, especially the time when she had been forced to dance with Jensi's friend Valin.

 _Have fun, Keefe_ , she thought. Then she got out her Telepathy notebook and projected an image of Sir Helton with pink and green hair into it. She wanted to remember every detail of the prank, because although Keefe would get in trouble for it, it had been funny. Besides, she needed to show the others who weren't in her Elvin History class.

After Sophie sat there for a while more, half doing homework and half daydreaming, the bell eventually rang and prodigies swarmed the hallways. Sophie reluctantly stood (she had gotten quite comfy in her position on the floor) and put her books away, fetching her lunchbag. However, she was early and none of her friends were in the cafeteria. She reserved a table, opening her lunchbag. Ripplefluffs! _Thanks, Mom_ , Sophie thought. She determined to hide them in the inside pocket before Fitz arrived. Fitz would kill for ripplefluffs.

Someone approached her table, and Sophie looked up, expecting Dex, Biana, Tam, Linh or Keefe. Instead, she found the person she least wanted to see: Stina Heks and her cronies. "Whatcha been up to lately, Sophie? Have you and Keefe been bullying the teachers?" she mocked.

"I had nothing to do with it," Sophie retorted. "Besides, it's hardly _bullying_. It was a harmless prank." _If anyone's doing any bullying, it's you, Stina, you goddamn hypocrite. Leave me alone_.

"Whatever. I'm not the one who has to serve the detentions for it, so suit yourself. Of course, star prodigy Miss Foster is too high and mighty to serve detentions, isn't she?" The group of girls surrounding Stina giggled. Sophie was about to reply that she had, indeed, served detentions before, to go ask Valin if they wanted proof, but Stina turned around, curly hair swinging behind her, and marched off, saying something to the girl beside her and giggling. _Ugh_ , Sophie thought.

Dex pulled up in a chair beside her. "Hi, Sophie, I'm guessing you've heard about what happened with Sir Helton? Gossip spreads like wildfire in this school," Dex said.

"Yeah," Biana said, sitting next to him. The others all joined their table and Sophie immediately felt better. "That must have been hilarious." She put on an exaggerated version of Sir Helton's monotone voice and said "In this year, some elves signed some treaty, and in this year, some elves had some war..." she rolled her eyes.

"It was funny," Sophie said, smiling at the memory. "I was there."

"Really?"

"Yeah, Keefe's in my Elvin History class, remember?"

"Right, because he failed so many times." Fitz said, laughing. "Maybe soon you'll be a grade above him."

"Maybe," Sophie laughed. She passed the rest of her lunch this way, chatting with her friends, eating ripplefluffs while trying to keep them out of Fitz's sight. It was great. She was just putting her lunchbag away when she noticed a sticky note stuck to her locker door. She pulled it off before any of her friends could notice it.

 _Meet me in the caves at 7._

 **A/N: Yes, I know it's Sunday. I swear I'm not trying to make excuses, but Google Drive hasn't been letting me edit documents, it keeps saying it's offline or something even though I'm connected to the Internet. So in the end I just wrote this directly onto the document manager. Sorry if this isn't as good as the other chapters, that would be why. I had some of this written but then Google Drive didn't save it so I had to rewrite it.**

 **Anyway, I know this chapter is sucky, but thanks for bearing with me! Please review!**


	4. Broken Gray Eyes

_Meet me in the caves at 7._

It was probably another mysterious note from the Black Swan. Sophie knew she should probably tell her friends, but it was almost midterms and they were all likely very busy doing homework, like Sophie should have been doing. Instead, she paced in her room, wearing grooves into her plush carpet, glancing at the time. It was quarter to seven. She briefly considered telling Grady or Edaline, but she decided against it, knowing they wouldn't let her go.

Ten minutes later, Sophie decided to just go. She was a bit nervous, remembering that it had been at the caves in Havenfield where the Neverseen had captured her and Dex once, but she brought a flashlight and made sure she was ready to Inflict if need be. Then she made her way down to the caves.

At first, she saw no one in the caves. Wondering if maybe it was all just a hoax, she turned around, about to leave, a mix of relief and disappointment filling her chest. She knew it was probably better this way, but she had been half-hoping the Black Swan needed her again. It was good to feel useful.

"How's the Mysterious Miss F?" a voice said from behind her. Sophie jumped.

"Keefe!" She cried. "Don't scare me like that! And how did I not see you the first time? Are you a Vanisher now?"

"No," Keefe replied, an impish grin on his face. "But get this. This is a large rock. I can hide behind the large rock. _Whoa._ Mind-blowing, I know."

"Shut up." Sophie lightly punched Keefe on the arm. "So why did you send me that note? Why did you want to meet me here?"

"Sophie, I.." The words seemed to stick in Keefe's throat. Sophie didn't miss the fact that he called her by her first name, instead of Foster, like he usually did.

"Yes?"

"Sophie, you're really cute when you worry. But you're even cuter when you laugh."

"Why are you telling me this?"

 _Oblivious, as always,_ Keefe thought. Then again, she couldn't sense emotions the way he could. Fine, then. If she was going to make him say this the hard way, so be it. "Sophie, I love you," he blurted.

Sophie gasped. _Keefe_? Loved _her_? She had always thought Keefe and Biana would make a perfect couple. After all, Biana was head over heels in love with him. Often she thought that if it was her choice, she would just stay out of all this love drama. But when she looked up and saw Keefe's beautiful ice-blue eyes twinkling, a faint blush coating his cheeks, she thought otherwise. "Keefe, I..." She was too shocked to say much more than that. He really was a handsome boy. She had always liked his carefree nature, his ever-ready smile and ability to crack a joke. She just hadn't realized that she liked him as more than a friend. Sometimes, Sophie wished she was an Empath for the sole purpose of sorting out her own emotions.

"I'm sorry," Keefe said, backing away. "I shouldn't have said that. I know you don't like me back. It just slipped out. I'm really sorry, Sophie. I hope we can still be friends." He pushed past Sophie and out of the cave, where the sun was still casting faint rays of light onto the water. Keefe grabbed his home crystal.

"Keefe, wait-" She ran after him, but he had already leaped away. "Keefe," Sophie sighed. She realized now that she couldn't live without him. What if this just made things awkward between them? What if he thought she had rejected him and no longer wanted to talk to her? "I hope we can still be friends too," Sophie whispered.

Sophie returned to her room. She dug out an old photo album. She and her friends all had one of these albums. They had made them once when they had taken a trip to the Forbidden Cities and Biana had discovered the wonders of Kodak machines. She had insisted they each make an album. "Come on, it'll be fun," she had said. "That way we'll have something physical to remember each other by. In case..." Biana had trailed off there. _In case one of doesn't make it through the war. In case one of us dies. Or_ , Sophie thought bitterly, _in case one of us just needs a picture to fangirl over when things aren't working out._

She flipped through the album. She found a picture of Keefe, goofing around as usual and making everyone try on funny hats. He wasn't wearing a hat, as he had said it would mess up the Hair. But in the picture, he was trying to force a clown wig onto Fitz's head, while Dex wore a cowboy hat and Sophie, Linh and Biana all wore matching bunny-ear headbands. Tam was standing in the corner, pretending he didn't know them. Sophie's eyes focused on Keefe. He looked so young, so happy. Lately she had been seeing more of the scared, broken boy. She hoped she didn't lose Keefe. She didn't know how she hadn't realized she loved him earlier. Apparently, she was oblivious even to her own crushes.

After staring at the album for a while longer, Sophie put it back in the drawer where she had got it. She climbed into bed and clapped her hands once, closing the curtains. She lay there for a while, but though her plush sheets were warm and cozy she could not fall asleep. She thought about Keefe, and the Black Swan, and the Neverseen. Hours later, she finally drifted off, and dreamed of a pair of ice blue eyes. At first, they were a warm, friendly, bright blue. They made her happy. Then they faded to gray as Sophie saw the broken boy hiding behind another joke and a smile. They had lost all light, all warmth, everything that made Keefe Keefe.

Sophie awoke from her fitful sleep and vowed that she would never, ever, let Keefe be broken like that. She would try to make things right.

 **A/N: I actually published a chapter on Saturday! Wow. To any fellow Canadians, happy Thanksgiving weekend! Have some terribly written SoKeefe to celebrate. Please continue to read and review, you guys are what keeps me going!**


	5. Stupid Lovesick Fool

That morning, Sophie felt determined. She felt a strong urge to protect Keefe, no matter the cost. She was also a bit dreamy and lost in the clouds, but that may have just been because of sleep deprivation. She couldn't tell. Nevertheless, despite Sophie's mood, she still had to go to school. She still had to sit through more boring Elvin History classes, this time, prank-free. Although Sophie had originally been worried about Keefe's prank, now she realized class would be rather dull with Sir Helton's regular voice, minus the squeaks.

When Sophie arrived at school, someone was already waiting for her at her locker. Sophie sighed. Right now she would rather not have to deal with Stina. _Actually, scratch that_ , she thought. _I would rather not have to deal with Stina_ ever _._

"Someone didn't get expelled from Foxfire? Huh. I'm surprised. Well, that's too bad, huh?" Her cronies giggled and nodded. Sophie fumed.

"If you're not careful, _you're_ the one who's going to get expelled," she growled. "You know bullying isn't tolerated at Foxfire."

"You're one to be talking." Stina huffed in contempt, spinning on her heel and flouncing away. Sophie grabbed her books and headed to her first class. Today it was Phys. Ed. When she got the the outdoor field, her friends were already waiting there. When he saw her, Keefe abruptly cast his eyes to the ground.

"Hi guys," Sophie said, trying not to look at Keefe. Her friends all responded enthusiastically, even Keefe, although Sophie could tell it was forced. A few minutes later, their Phys. Ed. mentor, Lady Elana, walked out to the field and blew her whistle, and the prodigies eventually quieted down and looked at her.

"Alright, alright. That's enough, girls," Lady Elana said to a few prodigies talking near the front. "Today we're going to practice channeling your energy, or enhancing your physical abilities using mental energy. Everyone, in a line." The prodigies obliged, forming a line at one end of the field. "Now when I say 'Go', I want all of you to run to the other end of the field _without_ using any channeling. Got it?"

Sophie was confused. Weren't they supposed to be working on channeling? Nevertheless, she ran when Lady Elana told her to, despite being one of the last to arrive at the opposite end. She had a feeling she would do better once they tried channeling.

"Now, everyone, you're going to run to the end of the field again, but this time, I want you to focus all of your mental energy on running faster. If you try hard enough, you can actually end up going faster. And don't expect to get it on the first try. Channeling takes a lot of mental energy and concentration." 

Sophie focused her energy onto her arms and legs, preparing them to run. When Lady Elana shouted go, she pushed her energy into those muscles, willing them to move faster. When she arrived at the finish line, most of the other prodigies were still halfway across the field. "Whoops," she muttered.

"Congratulations, Sophie!" Lady Elana shouted to her from across the field. The other prodigies were just arriving. "You seem to have gotten the hang of that pretty quickly." Sophie flushed, trying to hide behind Dex. However, she still caught a few annoyed mutters and eye rolls. _Of course Sophie Foster can do it. Sophie Foster can do anything. After all, she's the freaky girl with the brown eyes and five abilities._ And she didn't need to be an Empath to know that there was a lot of resentment and jealousy circulating the field that day. Sometimes she wished she was just a normal elf, with blue eyes and one ability, who had lived in the Lost Cities all her life. But that was a dream she could never achieve.

Besides, if being weird meant she got to have Keefe and all her other friends in her life, then it was worth it.

They spent the rest of the period working on channeling. Most of the others eventually got it. Dex didn't, which seemed to frustrate him. Sophie tried to comfort him, but he seemed to not want her comfort. Maybe he resented her, too. Maybe all her friends did.

By the end of the period, all of them were tired and sweaty, having used all their physical energy to run and all their mental energy to enhance their running. Biana nearly collapsed, and Sophie worried she had been trying too hard, but Tam caught her and Biana righted herself, blushing. She would be fine. Unfortunately, it was only first period, and they still had another class before lunch. Sophie had Linguistics. She watched her friends walk back into the main building. Keefe wasn't with them. She looked to the right and saw him sitting on a park bench, staring into space. "Keefe, what are you doing?" she asked, approaching him. "Aren't you supposed to have The Universe now?"

"Yeah." Keefe's voice sounded lazy and nonchalant to the ordinary observer, but there was a hint of something deeper underneath it.

"Then what are you doing?"

"Skipping." 

"Keefe," Sophie chastised. But then she remembered when she had first met Keefe. He had been skipping even back then, and she had stumbled upon him when she had gotten lost in Foxfire's many hallways. Thanks to her photographic memory, she could still remember the moment vividly. But she was shaken from her fond memories when she remembered what time it was. "I need to get to class," she mumbled, walking away toward the Silver Tower, where she took Linguistics. She didn't want to be late, especially not when it was Lady Cadence teaching her.

She made it class seconds before the bell rang, but Lady Cadence still ended up sniping at her because she couldn't focus. She couldn't stop thinking about Keefe, and how sad he had seemed, and how he shouldn't be skipping class, and how badly she had messed things up. Keefe liked her. _Keefe liked her_ , and all she could do was mumble stupidly until he left, thinking she didn't like him back. _Goddammit, Sophie. Can't you be anything except a stupid blubbering fool? A guy tells you he likes you, and you can't even form the words to tell him you like him back. Stupid lovesick fool._ It didn't help that she couldn't stop thinking about him, either. What had started as a beautiful day for a strong, determined Sophie was now a dull, gray day for a sad, self-deprecating Sophie.

Somewhere on a park bench outside, a blond-haired, icy-eyed elf was thinking about how stupid he was to have ever thought Sophie would like him.

 **A/N: Well, this story has taken a depressing twist. Heheh. Hope you like the new chapter. Thank you so much to Undecided13, AttemptedWriting101, and AmericanDemigod for your reviews, as well to everyone else who has read, followed or favourited. Yes, there will definitely be SoKeefe kisses. Eventually. :)**


	6. Is All Love This Painful?

Keefe had promised his parents he wouldn't skip classes again after he had been caught skipping way back in Level Four. Up until now, he had kept his promise. He hadn't skipped class for years, but today he felt as though he wouldn't be able to concentrate anyway, so there'd be no point in going to his Universe class. Besides, he was good at the Universe, as his photographic memory made memorizing star charts pretty easy. So instead he found himself on a park bench underneath a tree near the field at Foxfire.

 _So it turns out Sophie Foster's amazing at channeling, too. Sophie is amazing at everything. I mean, she has five abilities, she was the earliest to manifest, and she can do crazy things with her abilities thanks to her modified genes. And her brown eyes... when they catch the light they're like glowing amber. Other people say it's strange for an elf to have brown eyes but there must be something wrong with their vision because Sophie's eyes are the prettiest things I've ever seen. Sophie's like a mix between a superhero, a model and a genius._

 _And I'm just weak little Keefe Sencen. I can make people laugh. I can read their emotions. That's all I'll ever be good for._

Keefe plucked a leaf off the tree next to his bench. It was a vibrant green, smooth and soft. In its own small, ordinary way, it was beautiful.

Keefe ripped the leaf in half and let the pieces fall to the ground.

 _What kind of idiot am I, thinking someone as strong and beautiful and powerful as Sophie Foster would ever like me? Who am I to think that I could ever stand a chance with her? Why would anyone like a broken little Empath with family issues?_

 _At least she was your friend before. Now you've messed everything up and she probably hates you. Congratulations, Keefe. What in the world made you think it would be a good idea to tell her your feelings, when she's clearly liked Fitz from the start? You can read others' feelings, but you can't even seem to control your own emotions._

Keefe stood. He couldn't sit still any longer. He let his feet guide him, and soon found himself in a small forest behind the school. He was alone. From where he stood in a little pine-covered valley, no one would be able to see him from Foxfire. Perfect.

 _Why can't I ever think anything through before just blurting out whatever's on my goddamn mind? I thought I learned this lesson already with my parents. Why does Sophie make me lose all sense and reason? Seriously. Why I am so in love with someone when I know can't have her? Is all love this painful or is it just me?_

From the folds of his uniform Keefe produced a small pocket knife. He flicked open the blade and pushed back his shirt sleeve.

 _Dammit, Keefe. You joined the Neverseen to try and help your friends. And all it did was hurt them. You told Sophie about your feelings for her. And now she's probably going through a mental breakdown, because she doesn't know how to tell you that she really loves Fitz without hurting your feelings. Well, that's okay. She won't have to. All I ever do is hurt those I care about. They'd be better off without me._

Keefe pressed the knife blade into his wrist, watching as a thin line of blood formed, almost like a beaded bracelet around his wrist. He remembered a beaded bracelet he had painted for his mother once when he was younger. She hadn't wanted it, so he gave it to Sophie instead. She looked really pretty when she wore it. She looked really pretty all the time, actually.

She was way out of his league.

Keefe dug the knife into his wrist harder, and the thin line of blood thickened. A drop trickled down his arm and fell in the grass. A tear landed next to it.

At this point, the physical pain meant nothing to him. It was another way to try and drown out his mental pain, another distraction. It hurt, but he liked it, and besides, he had known pain his entire life, both physically and mentally. He removed the knife from his wrist only to cut again, deeper this time. A choked sob escaped from his lips. He was about to plunge the knife deeper, to just end it all so he wouldn't have to feel any of the pain any more, when he heard footsteps and a voice calling out.

"Keefe?"

 **A/N: This time I have no excuse. I forgot to post the chapter. Whoops. I guess I was too tired from having 5 tests this week. Ugh. I'm sorry, Keefe. I'm sorry for torturing you like this. Or am I? :3 Also, I know this chapter's kinda short. I'm sorry.**

 **Thanks to everyone for reading, reviewing, following and favouriting! 1,281 views? Oh my gosh, I love you guys!**


	7. I Like You

"Keefe?"

Sophie blinked.

Seconds passed.

She couldn't possibly be seeing what she was seeing. Sophie hadn't imagined Keefe would skip class to do _this._ But she should have known. It pained her to see Keefe like this, broken like in her dream, blood dripping from his wrist. Self-harm may occur in the human world, but in the _Lost Cities_? It was unheard of, and yet it had happened to her very own Keefe. She rushed forward, snatching the knife from Keefe's hand and tucking it into her pocket and pulling out a handkerchief.

"Keefe, what were you _thinking_?" Sophie demanded, tears welling in her brown eyes. She pressed her handkerchief onto his wrist, staunching the cut. Where her fingers touched his skin she could feel him shaking, and his cheeks were tear-stained. He was broken.

Keefe tried to pull away, but Sophie grabbed his other arm with her free hand. "Sophie, I know you don't love me, and I'm a failure anyway. You don't like me. My parents don't like me. Nobody ever liked me. Everything I do just ends up hurting the people I care about, so let me go and let me finish what I started." Another tear slipped down his cheek.

"Keefe, I _do_ love you."

The words, although spoken softly and tenderly, slammed into Keefe, startling him into reality. "What? But you-"

"Look, I know how I acted back in the cave, but that wasn't because I didn't like you. I was just startled because I never would have thought you'd like me back. Keefe, I care about you, and I feel awful knowing you did this because of a simple misunderstanding. It's my fault."

"It's not your fault," Keefe said quietly. "I shouldn't have just assumed your confusion meant you didn't like me. I'm sorry. I ruined everything. Just like always."

"Keefe, you didn't ruin anything." One arm still holding the handkerchief to Keefe's wrist, Sophie let go of Keefe's other arm and wrapped her arm around him in an awkward half-hug. But Keefe didn't return the gesture. Another sign that he was still broken.

"You need to get to Elwin," Sophie said, peering down at the handkerchief, which was starting to soak through with red. "For once, someone other than me needs to go to the Healing Center." Her attempt at a joke earned a weak smile from Keefe, which made her feel a bit better, but it still hurt to see Keefe so broken. Wrapping one arm around his waist and keeping the other on his wound, she slowly began to lead him back towards Foxfire.

Keefe tried to protest. "What will my parents think? What will everyone else think? Sophie, I can't have everyone know about this. I just can't."

"I understand," Sophie said. "But you need medical attention. Elwin won't tell anyone else if we ask him not to. And I promise I won't tell."

"Thanks," Keefe said, but he didn't seem all that reassured.

When they reached the Healing Center, Elwin began to smile at the sight of Sophie and Keefe walking in, because Sophie frequented the Healing Center more than any other prodigy, but his expression sobered when he noticed the handkerchief pressed to Keefe's wrist. "What happened?" He asked, walking over to Keefe and Sophie.

"You can't tell anyone else about this," Sophie warned. "Please, Elwin." Elwin simply nodded, and Sophie knew he wouldn't. He peeled back the handkerchief and swallowed when he saw the cut.

"Mr. Sencen, that's pretty deep. You've lost quite a bit of blood. Could you please go to that bed over there?" Sophie led Keefe to the patient cot, where Elwin flashed various coloured lights over Keefe's injury before cleaning the cut with a soft wet cloth and applying an ointment made from who knows what. Keefe winced as he applied the salve, but didn't complain. "You may want to stay here until the end of the day. This salve can have side effects such as nausea and fatigue, so it might be a good idea to just get some rest for a while." Keefe sat up in the cot, and Sophie pulled up a chair next to it.

"I'll stay here, if that's okay with you," Sophie said to Elwin. Elwin nodded and returned to his office. The man, who usually had a joke and a smile ready, seemed serious after seeing Keefe. Sophie glanced down at Keefe's wrist, which was now wrapped in a bandage as it healed.

"So how'd you find me?" Keefe asked, fidgeting with the bedsheets. "I mean, weren't you supposed to be in class?"

"Yeah, I was in the middle of my Linguistics class with Lady Cadence. I don't know if this has anything to do with my telepathy or what, but I just got this sense that you were in trouble somehow, or that something was really wrong. And you know how I can track people's locations, like I do in Base Quest?" Keefe nodded. "I did that, and that's when I found you- you know."

"Hmm." Keefe mused. "So you really do like me? You're not just telling me that to make me feel better?"

"Keefe, you idiot. You would think that you'd be able to tell, since you're an Empath and all."

"But I always thought you liked Fitz," Keefe protested. "I mean, you always seemed to act strange around him, and your eyes would widen and you'd just stare at him, like so:" Keefe made an exaggerated imitation of a lovesick girl and changed his voice to mimic Sophie's: "Oh Fitz, you're so handsome-"

"Shut. Up." Sophie said, smacking Keefe lightly on his good arm. She couldn't help the faint blush rising to her cheeks. "Yes, I did used to like Fitz, when I first came to the Lost Cities and met all of you. But that stopped a long time ago. Then I realized I like you." Her blush intensified a bit as Keefe smirked. Sophie was glad he was getting back to his old happy self, but she had to admit, she was a bit annoyed that he was back to teasing her. "Besides, I always thought you liked Biana. It's pretty obvious she likes you."

"I know she likes me, but I definitely don't like her back, not in that way. I've known her since we were young, when Fitz and I first became friends, so she's more like a little sister to me. I just don't know how to tell her that. But," he added, "I like you, Sophie. A lot." Sophie didn't miss how he called her Sophie instead of Foster, like he usually did.

"I like you too, Keefe," she said. "Just tell her how you feel, and she'll understand. She may not like it, but if you don't return the feelings then there's no point leading her on. She'll get over it sooner or later."

"I can see why she likes me though," Keefe said. "I mean, what's not to like about me?" He winked and ran a hand through his hair, causing Sophie to laugh. The two of them chatted until the end-of-school bell rang and Elwin came over to check on Keefe's wrist and tell him that he was healing fine. When Sophie went home that day she had a warm tingly feeling in her chest, and Grady and Edaline asked her multiple times if she was alright because she couldn't seem to stop smiling. That night Sophie had no trouble falling asleep and she dreamed of a beautiful boy with beautiful blue eyes and she felt so good and lighthearted that it was hard to believe what Keefe had done earlier that day hadn't been anything more than a bad dream.

 **A/N: Another chapter, happier this time. I love SoKeefe :3 Please continue to read and review!**

 **PS: Who's excited for Flashback coming out? I can't wait!**


	8. Without You

The next day, Sophie arrived at school and Biana immediately rushed up to her, grabbing her shoulders and shaking them vigorously. "Sophie, Sophie, Sophie!" She squealed. "Is it true you're dating Keefe?"

Sophie's cheeks flushed. How Biana always seemed to know everything before anyone else, she had no clue. "We're not dating," she mumbled, detaching Biana's hands from her shoulders. The other girl had a huge grin on her face, and she looked really happy for Sophie, but having known Biana for years now, Sophie could tell that she was faking it. Her smile was almost too wide, and it didn't reach her eyes.

Biana raised an eyebrow. "Is that a yes?"

"No," Sophie groaned, her cheeks burning. "We're not dating."

"Are you _sure_?"

"Yes, I'm sure," Sophie grumbled, and although she and Keefe had never actually made it official or anything, she really hoped they would date. The thought of referring to Keefe as her boyfriend excited her, especially since she'd never had a boyfriend before. All those years in the Lost Cities, she had been the freaky twelve-year old high school student who not even the most desperate of guys would want to date. The feeling of having someone care about her in that sort of way was new to her, and she wasn't sure how she was supposed to feel. All she knew was that she loved Keefe, she cared about him more than anyone and that she would do anything for him.

Fortunately for Sophie, at that moment, Tam and Linh walked up to Sophie and Biana. "Hi," Linh said. "Sophie, why are you blushing?"

"Nothing," Sophie mumbled, grabbing her books and trying to walk away from the two other girls, but Biana grabbed her arm.

"Sophie and Keefe have a thing for each other," Biana said, not bothering to be quiet or subtle, and Sophie watched in horror as heads turned a few feet away down the hallway.

Linh grinned. "Aww, that's cute. Sophie and Keefe. We need a ship name," she said, rubbing her hands together excitedly.

"How about.. hmm, Keephie? Or SoKeefe? I think SoKeefe sounds better," Biana suggested, and Linh nodded. "Sophie and Keefe sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G.."

Sophie wrenched her arm out of Biana's grip and slapped her on the arm. "Shut. Up," she growled. "Don't make me Inflict on you."

"The only emotion you can feel right now is love anyway," Biana giggled.

"That's it." Sophie glared at the two of them and stalked down the hallway toward her first class. Those two were _so annoying_ , she decided, hazarding one more glance over her shoulder to see their heads bent together, giggling. Why was Biana so intent on shipping her and Keefe, when Biana liked Keefe anyway? Unless she really had moved on, but Sophie kind of doubted that.

Sophie nearly jumped out of her skin when a hand was placed on her shoulder. "Tam?" she yelped. "What are you doing?"

"I understand about you getting so annoyed by giggly girls," he said. "I mean, I've had to live with Linh all my life, so I'm kinda used to it, but I'm sorry she's being like that. She doesn't mean anything, you know. She just likes that kind of stuff."

"I know, but that doesn't mean it's any less annoying," Sophie grumbled. "You're Mr. Shady Emo Dude who's antisocial and wouldn't admit his crushes to anyone, so obviously you've never been shipped with anyone."

"Actually, I have," Tam said, surprising Sophie.

"Really?"

"Yeah. A girl back in Exillium. Her parents were a Bad Match, which they never got over, so they took it out on her, but she was really sweet and always put others above herself. We dated for a bit, and everyone was annoying us too, but I didn't really care, since I thought she was a perfect angel so it didn't matter. That was before I found her shirtless, making out with another guy. It was just an act." Tam lowered his gaze to the floor, and clearly something was bothering him in his thoughts. Sophie was surprised he had been so open about telling her all that.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I had no idea."

"It's nothing," Tam said. "I should get to class." He brushed past Sophie, turning down the hallway that let to his Shade training classroom. Sophie kept walking, wondering why he had told her that story. She wouldn't have expected Tam to have had a girlfriend, even less that he would tell her about it, but anything could happen, she supposed. She found her way to her first period classroom.

When both her morning sessions were over, Sophie returned to her locker and grabbed her lunchbag. She didn't feel like eating with the others in the cafeteria. She didn't want to deal with Biana and Linh teasing her, and besides, she didn't want to run into Stina. Instead, she sat at one of the benches in the courtyard. Feeling lonely, she transmitted to Keefe. _Keefe, wanna eat lunch with me in the courtyard?_

 _Sure_ , Keefe replied, _I'll just be a few minutes._

Two minutes later, Keefe plopped down beside her on the bench. "How was class?"

"Okay," Sophie replied. She took a bite of vegetable casserole from her thermos. It tasted like grilled cheese.

The two of them ate in silence for a couple minutes, before Sophie asked, "Keefe, are we dating now?"

"What makes you ask that?" Keefe asked. "You look like something's bothering you."

"It's just, Biana and Linh were teasing me, asking if we were dating and making ship names and stuff, and I wanted to know. Are we dating?"

"Do you want to be dating?" Keefe flashed an impish grin which made Sophie heart turn to mush.

"Yes."

"Then we are." Keefe reached for Sophie's hand. Sophie let him take it, and felt the warmth from his fingers seep into her own cold hands. She wished they could kiss, but since they were eating, it was probably better that they didn't. "Sophie, you are the world to me. Heck, you're more than that. I hope you know that." Sophie blushed. "Sorry, I don't mean to sound sappy and all that shit. But it's true."

"I know," said Sophie. "I feel the same way. I don't know what I'd do without you, without your smirk and your ice blue eyes and your ability to crack a joke at literally anything. Without you I'd be nothing."

"You, nothing? Ha. You're the Mysterious Miss F. You learned too channel faster than anyone else in our entire phys. ed. class. You're the girl with five abilities. And you say you'd be nothing without me. A dumb prankster who skips class. Yeah, right."

"Keefe, I love you, but get more self-esteem, please." Sophie finished eating her casserole and laid her head on Keefe's shoulder. He wrapped one strong arm around her body, and there in that moment, with the sun shining on her as she laid on Keefe, she felt as though she were in heaven.

 **A/N: I really don't know how to write romantic scenes. I'm sorry. Please, send me some constructive criticism and any feedback you may have. I need it.**

 **On a side note, TWO DAYS UNTIL FLASHBACK COMES OUT! I can't wait! I need more KOTLC. I wonder what Shannon Messenger has in store for us?**


	9. The Girls' Sleepover

**Just so you all know before reading this, I have not read Flashback yet so there will be no spoilers in this chapter or any further chapters until I say otherwise, so if you haven't read it yet you're not alone, and feel free to keep reading!**

"So.."

"Yes?" Biana cast her an expectant look. Linh raised an eyebrow.

"So I may or may not be dating Keefe after all.."

"I KNEW IT!" Biana exclaimed, at the same time that Linh said "Awwww."

"But, Biana, I thought.. I thought you liked Keefe..." Sophie protested. She didn't want to make her friend upset or anything, but Biana was her friend, and she was concerned.

"I used to," Biana admitted. "But then.."

"You met someone else?" Linh guessed.

"Well, yeah." Biana blushed, and Sophie wondered who it might be and if she knew this person. She hoped he was a kind boy who was deserving of Biana's love.

Linh cleared her throat. "So, girlfriends, whatcha wanna do?" It was Saturday, and the three girls were all gathered at Everglen for a sleepover. It was only girls in the house for now, as Fitz was at Dex's house with Keefe and Tam for a boys' sleepover, and Alden was away on Council business. And no one knew where Alvar was.

"Why don't we make mallowmelt or ripplefluffs or something?" Sophie suggested.

"Someone's hungry," Linh laughed. "But remember what happened last time we tried to make mallowmelt?" Sophie recalled a time when all seven had been at Everglen, making mallowmelt, but they had done something wrong the recipe hadn't worked out, so Keefe had started a food fight, which had led to sticky mallowmelt in Biana's hair. It had taken hours for them to get it all out.

"We could do makeovers," Biana suggested.

Sophie panicked. Makeovers were her second least favourite thing in the world, second only to the Neverseen. But Linh perked up a bit. "That's a great idea. But," she said, noticing Sophie's discomfort, "why don't we set a time limit or something so we don't spend too much time?"

"Sure," Biana said. "How about three hours? That should be enough to get all the foundation, blush, eyeshadow, mascara, lipstick, and nail polish done, plus pick out a nice outfit and accessories. Of course, I'll have to hurry a bit, but it won't be that bad."

Sophie rolled her eyes. "How about half an hour?" she suggested. One minute would have been a much more preferable option, but she knew the others would never agree.

"That sounds fair," Linh reasoned. "Why don't we do it as a competition? We can each make over one person, and then your mom can be the judge. And the person who is being made over isn't allowed to help," she said, glaring pointedly at Biana.

 _Oh crap_ , thought Sophie, who hadn't the slightest sense of fashion or knowledge of how to apply makeup **(honestly same lol).** But before she could say anything, Biana shouted "Game on!"

They drew names out of a hat to see who would make over who. Sophie would make over Biana, then Biana would do Linh, and Linh would do Sophie. Unfortunately, it was Sophie's turn first. Biana led her to her closet. There were so many outfits that Sophie didn't know where to look. She glanced at Biana, thinking of what colours would go nicely with her chocolate hair and teal eyes. After wasting about five minutes of her time she decided on a pretty sleeveless lavender dress that hung to midway down her calves. The dress had a piece of lavender fabric around the waist as a belt. Sophie helped Biana into the dress, then rummaged around in Biana's dresser full of jewellery until she found a set with a necklace, bracelets and earrings that was silver and deep red. She also found flats of a similar shade of red.

Then it was time to do the makeup. Linh announced that she only had ten minutes left, and she didn't know how to apply foundation anyway, so she decided to just skip that. She hesitantly put a bit of blush on Biana's cheeks, painted her lips deep red, and gave her purplish eyeshadow. She then took out mascara, and she tried applying it but she didn't do a very good job as she was too scared of poking Biana in the eye.

"Time!" shouted Linh, and Biana examined herself in the mirror.

"Not bad," she said. "Honestly, you did better than I thought you would." Sophie smiled. Maybe makeovers weren't so bad after all? Then again, she hadn't been made over yet. She took the stopwatch from Linh and reset the time to thirty minutes.

"Go," she said, and Biana raced into the closet. She tossed a few dresses aside and settled on an ankle-length navy blue dress with a floaty outer layer to the skirt. The dress was like a solid blue dress up to her chest, and above that there was a lacy section covering her collarbone and shoulders. Sophie had to admit it looked really nice on her.

When the timer beeped Linh had on eyeliner, blue eyeshadow, blush, and pale pink lipstick, as well as silver heels and jewellery. Of course, Biana had done a much better job than she had. But Sophie reminded herself that hers could have gone a lot worse.

"Alright Sophie, your turn," Linh said, ushering her into the closet. Sophie was starting to regret her life decisions when Linh emerged from the closet holding a red, halter top dress that fell to her feet. Sophie begrudgingly let Linh help her into the dress and add a thin silver belt, pearl necklace and silver hoop earrings. Fortunately, Linh chose elegant silver sandals instead of heels.

Sophie tried her very best to sit still as Linh did her makeup, giving her red lipstick to match the dress. She resisted the urge to pull out loose eyelashes, even when Linh put mascara on them, making them feel heavy and itchy. She let out a sigh when the timer finally beeped and she stood up from Biana's dressing table. She glanced at the floor to ceiling mirror on the wall. She and her friends looked like supermodels, thanks to the dresses, the makeup and their natural elvin beauty. "Ready to show my mom?" Biana asked.

"Not really," Sophie replied, but Biana tugged her arm and they walked downstairs into the kitchen, to find that Della had baked pistachio ripplefluffs. Good thing they hadn't decided to make any.

"You girls look beautiful," Della gasped. "Have a ripplefluff. They're fresh and warm." The girls graciously accepted, careful not to smudge their lipstick.

"We had a makeover contest," Biana explained. "We each had thirty minutes. I did Linh, Linh did Sophie, and Sophie did me. Who do you think did the best job?"

"I think you all look pretty," Della beamed. "Have you been teaching Sophie? She certainly has improved her fashion sense since she came to the Lost Cities." All four of them laughed. Makeovers weren't so bad after all, Sophie decided, as long as they didn't last hours.

 **A/N: I'm sorry for not updating sooner, what with the disastrous combination of homework, procrastination and sleep. I'll try to update more frequently but I can't promise anything. Also, I know nothing of makeup so sorry if this was inaccurate, you are free to blame me. And I hate dresses.**


	10. The Boys' Sleepover

"So," Fitz crooned, "how does it feel to be in love?"

Fitz, Keefe, Tam and Dex were in Keefe's room. Although that was probably the last place Tam wanted to be, and Dex probably wasn't thrilled at the idea of hanging out with Wonderboy, they all needed some bonding time, and anyway, Biana had kicked Fitz out of Everglen so they could have their girls-only sleepover. Fitz smirked to himself at the idea of Sophie being forced to do girly things by Biana and Linh.

"Shut up," Keefe said, smacking Fitz's arm. "Actually though, it feels pretty good to have someone who appreciates you and loves you no matter who you are. Like, I know you all care about me as friends," - fortunately, he missed the eye roll from Tam in the corner of the room - "but this is different, somehow. And I feel glad that the person I love, Sophie Foster, chose me."

Fitz nodded. He didn't seem all that bothered by Keefe and Sophie being together, but he could have just been hiding his feelings. Dex, on the other hand, looked at the floor and refused to make eye contact with Keefe. He didn't look angry or jealous of Keefe, because he already knew Sophie didn't love him in that way, but there was sadness in his eyes, and Keefe couldn't help feeling a little bit guilty, even though it wasn't his fault.

Tam, noticing the awkwardness, cleared his throat. "Base Quest, anyone?"

"Sure," Fitz said, sitting up. Keefe nodded and Dex shrugged. "What are the teams?"

"I think it should be Fitz and I versus Dex and Tam," Keefe declared.

"What? That's not fair," Dex protested. "You guys have had way more experience playing Base Quest than the rest of us."

"Why don't we do a random draw?" Fitz suggested. Keefe relented, and Fitz grabbed a paper, tearing it into four and writing one name on each. "The team are.. Dex and I, versus Tam and Keefe!" Keefe pouted and Tam sent a death toward Keefe, as if to say, _You'd better do well if you're on my team, or else._

The four boys rushed to the staircase, and it spun them downstairs. Heading towards the door, Keefe yelled: "First team to have both members to the forest gets to quest first!" Then he took off running, sending a pointed glance at Tam before he went.

Tam ran as fast as he could toward the forest (which, he admitted to himself, wasn't particularly fast compared to Keefe or Fitz). Keefe arrived first, then Fitz. Tam glanced to his left to find Dex next to him, panting and running hard. Tam ran even faster, and in the end, he got to the forest first. He and Keefe would quest first.

"Yes!" Keefe yelled, high-fiving Tam so hard it hurt Tam's hand.

"That wasn't necessary," Tam mumbled. Then he and Keefe began counting to one hundred to allow Fitz and Dex time to choose their base.

An hour or so later, four exhausted boys stumbled back into Candleshade. Keefe's parents were upstairs, so they headed to the kitchen, where Keefe grabbed lushberry juice for all of them. They flopped on the couch and drank their juice.

All of a sudden, Keefe asked, "Fitz, did you like Sophie? Are you upset that I'm with her and.. you know. I'm sorry for being so direct, but I care about you and I wanted to know how you feel about this."

Fitz blinked. "I did used to," he admitted. "I liked her ever since bringing her to the Lost Cities, and for a while I felt like she would never think of me as more than a friend, but eventually I met someone else and I got over Sophie." Fitz smiled an uncharacteristically shy smile and a faint pink tinge spread across his cheeks.

"Aww, Fitz is blushing!" Keefe exclaimed. He reached out and pinched Fitz's cheeks, but Fitz quickly swatted his hands away. "Anyways, I think we all know Tam never liked anyone."

Tam sat on an armchair in the corner. He let out an amused chuckle but didn't respond. _Let them think what they want. It's not like it matters what they think anyway_. _Besides,_ _their oblivion is amusing._

Nobody mentioned Dex's feelings about Sophie. Although they didn't know the details, they knew something along the lines of Sophie rejecting him had happened, and they didn't want to hurt his feelings on such a sensitive topic.

Keefe let out a sigh of relief. None of his friends were jealous. None of them also liked Sophie. He wasn't hurting any of their feelings by being with Sophie. Maybe, despite all his issues, despite his messing everything up and despite his parents and despite everything he would be okay. After all, he had supportive friends and he had Sophie. Thinking of her beautiful smiling face left him feeling warm and fuzzy inside, like someone had lit a campfire and he was sitting nearby snuggled up in a blanket.

The rest of the night, Fitz, Tam and Dex were constantly wondering why Keefe had a happy, idiotic grin pasted on his face. And Keefe was oblivious to it all.

 **A/N: I'm sorry Sophitz shippers but I did state that this is a SoKeefe story. I love Sophie and Keefe :3 That last part is inspired by the song "Everglow" by Coldplay.**

 **Also, 3.5K views? 20 reviews? I know compared to some people it's not that much but it's a lot for me, so thanks everyone and please continue to read and review! Thanks so much just for sticking with me for so long!**


	11. The Date

**So. I've now read Flashback so there will be spoilers. Just a warning!**

Sophie tried on a navy blue tunic with a wide embroidered gold sash and gold trim. She looked in the mirror before taking it off and trying on a soft brown tunic with lacy ruffles. No. She took it off again. "Ughhhh," she muttered. Ever since she and Keefe had gotten together she had become far more self-conscious and had actually started to care about what she wore. For once in her life she wished she could have Biana's fashion sense and natural beauty and grace.

"I would recommend wearing that one," a voice said, and Sophie jumped when she realized it was Vertina speaking from her mirror. Normally she disliked Vertina but she did know a thing or two about fashion. Sophie turned to fetch whatever Vertina had pointed to from her closet.

"You want me to wear _this_?" She exclaimed. "Nuh-uh. No way." She was holding a layered, fitted sleeveless tunic that was the colour of ripe cherries with the lower layers flaring out at the bottom in a creamy white. Not only did it look tight and uncomfortable but it was such a bright, eye-catching colour and the neckline was far lower than she would have liked. She moved to hang it back in her closet.

"Just put it on already," Vertina complained. "Do you want to look nice or not?" Sophie sighed and muttered something under her breath before pulling the tunic over her head. She had to admit, it did look kind of nice on her, even if it was too tight and revealing for her liking. She then followed Vertina's directions to pull her hair into a bun with two braids crowing the sides of her head.

With her tunic, black leggings, and white flats on, she took a deep breath and placed a hand on her stomach, trying to calm the anxiety building up and the butterflies dancing. One week ago at the sleepover at Everglen, Biana had dared her to take Keefe on a date. She had protested, but eventually decided that it wouldn't be that bad even if it involved dressing up and going out and possibly making a complete fool of herself and making Keefe hate her. _No_ , she thought. She couldn't afford to think things like that. This night was for her and Keefe and she was not going to mess things up.

Sophie did a last minute check in the mirror, smoothing down her tunic and tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear. She fought the urge to pluck out an eyelash, as hers currently sported a light touch of mascara. "You actually look okay now that you started caring about your appearance," Vertina remarked, and Sophie decided that that was the closest she was going to get from the grouchy mirror.

A knock on the door made Sophie jump. "Keefe? What are you doing here already?" Sophie exclaimed, opening the door. "It's only quarter to six. Did you manage to survive Grady?" Sophie's overprotective adoptive father had agreed to let Sophie go on the date, even though it was with 'That Boy', but only if Sandor could accompany them. He had originally insisted that all five of Sophie's bodyguards come along, but fortunately Edaline had convinced him that it was a date and they needed some level of privacy, which couldn't be achieved with five bodyguards of different species lumbering after them.

"I survived." Keefe said. "But Grady was giving me the death glare big time." Keefe's hair was expertly styled, as per usual, and he was wearing a sky blue dressy tunic that complemented his eyes perfectly.

"You look amazing," Sophie told him, reaching for his hand. He took it.

"Are you kidding?" Keefe said. "I didn't even know it was possible for you to be so gorgeous." He tucked back a strand of Sophie's ear, which had fallen in her face again. It seemed she still had a bit to learn about hairstyling.

Keefe's comment brought a blush to Sophie's cheeks and warmness in the pit of her stomach. However, the butterflies still fluttered around in her stomach, making her ever so slightly queasy. "Ready to go?" she mumbled, and they made their way to the Leapmaster, then let the light whisk them away.

The restaurant she had selected was a fairly small but quaint restaurant in the streets of Atlantis. She figured that if she had to humiliate herself, it would be better to have fewer people watching, plus the restaurant had been recommended to her by Linh, who had stopped there once while they had spent days searching for the entrance to Nightfall in Atlantis. She took a deep breath and she held the door open for Keefe, then seated herself at a table for two near one of the windows. A waiter came to take their orders, and they both decided to try the daily special, some sort of tuberous root vegetable that Keefe said tasted amazing. Sophie glanced out the window at the streets beyond, reaching for an eyelash.

Keefe stopped her arm. "What's bugging you?" he asked, gently moving her hand back to its position on her leg.

"I don't know. I'm just... nervous, I guess," Sophie said. She noticed the way his hand rested on hers longer than it needed to and was glad for his warmth and strength. She tapped her fingers together, deactivating Tinker's gadgets to block her enhancing. Keefe sent a cool breeze gently blowing through her mind, clearing away the anxiety. "Thanks," she said, tapping her fingers again to reactivate the gadgets. She felt stupid to need to rely him to calm her, but at the same time it felt good to know that he had her back.

Several minutes later, the waiter arrived with their food. Sophie tasted the tuber and was surprised to find that it tasted a bit like a sweet potato and gravy. Linh was right, this restaurant did have good cooking. Neither of them talked too much during the meal, as they were too busy enjoying the delicious food, which Keefe said was called gantoffa root.

The food was why Sophie was so distracted when the two hooded figures entered the restaurant and force fields popped up: one for the two figures, one for Keefe and Sophie, and one for all the other innocent people in the restaurant. That meant one of the figures had to be Ruy, the Psionipath.

Sophie's instinctive reaction was to reach into one of the hidden pockets of her tunic and pull out a small throwing dagger, even though she knew it would be pointless to try and throw it through the force field. But it was her only hope.

"Well, well, well," one of the figures said, stepping forward and tossing back her hood. Her intricately curled blonde hair and ice blue eyes made Sophie want to scream, even though they reminded her so much of the boy standing next to her. "The Moonlark and the Lodestar Initiative, on a _date_. Keefe, I thought after all these years of training you would still have a bit of common sense left in you, even after everything you've been through, but I guess I'm wrong. This is the last straw, Keefe. Maybe I'll have to find a replacement for the Lodestar Initiative."

Keefe's hand was shaking, and Sophie reached for it, wishing that she was an Empath so that she could calm him the same way he calmed her. Then again, maybe he was justified in his anger and wanted to feel it. After all, she was also shaking, although she couldn't tell if it was from anger or just pure terror.

"I don't give a damn about your stupid Lodestar Initiative," Keefe growled, his grip on Sophie's hand increasing.

"But I know what you do care about." Gisela smiled a cold, icy smile that made Sophie shiver more. She pointed. "You care about the Moonlark, don't you?"

"Don't even think about hurting her!" Keefe exclaimed, but it wasn't like he could do anything about their current situation, given that they were trapped in a force field.

"You still don't know how to make the correct choices, Keefe. But I believe you can learn, even after all of our failed attempts to teach you. Keep in mind, this is your last chance. But I'm offering you a deal. Hand over the Moonlark, and I will let Keefe and everyone else in this diner go." She gestured to the many people who had been seated in the restaurant or working in the kitchen, who were now clustered near the back wall, holding on to each other in terror. After all, Sophie and her friends were used to being attacked by the Neverseen, but these were ordinary elves, and to them, the Neverseen were a far away political problem the Council was facing. "But, if you refuse, this entire restaurant will explode, killing the bystanders and the two of you. I know you'll probably try some clever scheme to save both Sophie and the people, but trust me, it won't work. You have ten seconds before we blow up everyone here."

"10."

"9."

Sophie glanced at Keefe. "Don't do it," he pleaded. "I could never live with myself if I lost you. We'll find a way to save you, I promise."

"8."

"What other choice do we have?" Sophie asked, her brain trying to find possible ways out but failing. "Gisela is right. There's no way to save me. Just let me go."

"7."

"6."

"What about the panic switches?" Keefe asked. He pushed the button on his ring, and so did Sophie, but she knew there was no way Dex would arrive in time. It would only be a matter of seconds before Gisela exploded the restaurant. Besides, she wasn't sure of she wanted to put Dex in that kind of danger, especially after he responded to the panic switch and saved them from Umber the first time.

"5.

"4."

"3."

Sophie knew what she had to do. "I'll go," she said. "If you promise to leave Keefe and the other innocent people alone, I'll do it." She yanked her arm free from Keefe's, and Ruy made the force field disappear and form a new one around only Keefe. Gisela grabbed her hand and shoved something under her nose, making the world spin and go black.

 **A/N: I know it's been forever! Mostly I was rereading Nightfall and then reading Flashback! The ending though! And Tam! Aaaaah!**

 **Yes, I will continue to write this fanfic even after Sophitz happened in Flashback. SoKeefe is better anyway and just because Sophitz is canon doesn't mean I can't ship whoever I want. I'm sorry for not updating in so long but I will try to update more frequently, especially now that it's winter break.**


	12. I Failed Again

Worst. First. Date. _Ever_.

In all the books Keefe had read and the stories of other prodigies at Foxfire, first dates were happy, romantic occasions that allowed you to spend quality time with your love interest getting to know them and having fun together. Of course, he hadn't been expecting it to be that sort of cliche order-spaghetti-and-suck-on-the-noodle-until-you-kiss kind of thing, because it was Sophie Foster, but he had been hoping for a romantic night out, dinner with just the two of them in Atlantis. He definitely hadn't been expecting his evil mom and her Psionipath friend to come and kidnap his girlfriend.

Psionipath. More like psychopath. Because anyone who allied himself with Gisela couldn't be all in their right mind.

After they knocked Sophie out and leaped away, Keefe stood there in shock for a few minutes before he realized that he should be spending his time telling the others and finding a way to save Sophie. He couldn't believe Sophie had willingly turned himself over to Gisela. Yes, he was angry at her for going with them, when he had pleaded for her not to, but somehow her selflessness made him love her even more. The thought gave him determination and he raced out of the diner, light leaping back to Everglen. Rushing through the ornate golden gates, he pounded on the front door, desperate.

Della answered the door. "Keefe? What are you doing here? I thought you were on a date with Sophie."

"I was," Keefe replied, "but my mom and Ruy came and kidnapped her. They offered us a choice of handing her over and letting me live, or killing everyone in the restaurant, and of course that selfless little idiot who apparently has no sense of self-preservation decided to sacrifice herself. Please, we need to help her now."

"I'll go get the others," Della said, a grim look of determination marring her usually beautiful face. Keefe followed her into the mansion, and soon enough, he, Della, Alden, Fitz and Biana were assembled in the living room of Everglen, along with Grady, Edaline, Dex, Tam, Linh, and Sophie's five bodyguards. Sandor **(I totally didn't forget to write in that he existed in the previous chapter, but he tried to attack Gisela and Ruy, which led to him being hit with a melder and knocked unconscious)** had recovered by know and was furious.

"I _told_ you you should have let these four come along," he snapped at Edaline, but his voice softened when he noticed the tears streaking down Edaline's face, knowing she must be feeling incredibly guilty for persuading him to let Flori, Tarina, Bo and Nubiti stay at Havenfield. And guilt could do terrible things to the elves' minds. "I'm sorry," he said quietly in his squeaky voice. "I'm just upset that I've failed Sophie again. I don't understand why she keeps insisting that I remain her bodyguard after all the times I've failed her. After we find her I'm resigning, and nothing she can say will stop me. She needs a better goblin than me."

"It's not your fault," Edaline said miserably, her voice fragile like she was a cracked porcelain bowl about to shatter at the slightest touch. "It's mine. I'm the one who insisted that she needed privacy and that her other bodyguards should stay. You tried to protect her and that's all that matters."

"I tried, but I failed," Sandor said just as miserably, but before he could say another word Alden cut in.

"Enough of trying to place the blame on ourselves. What matters now is that we save Sophie, and we can't do that if everyone is arguing about whose fault this is. We need to come up with the plan. Does anyone have any thoughts on where the Neverseen may have taken Sophie?"

Unfortunately, no one had a clue about where any of the Neverseen's other hideouts were, which dead-ended Alden's plan-making pretty quickly.

Throughout the conversation, Keefe tried to concentrate and add the the discussion, because he knew that was the best way he could help Sophie. But his mind seemed to disagree. All he could think of was the fear that flashed across Sophie's face when the hooded figures first arrived, and how that fear turned into sheer determination when she realized she needed to sacrifice herself to save him. It should be the other way around. Sophie was too precious and too amazing; he didn't deserve to be alive and free when she wasn't. He was supposed to be her knight in shining armor, her gallant young hero who would die for her, but apparently he had failed again. He felt dejected and terrible, but more than anything he felt pure terror coursing through his veins. He knew how far his mother's cruelty could extend; after all he had grown up with her and seen her do awful things with the Neverseen. He didn't want Sophie anywhere near that terrible woman, yet Sophie had willingly went with her. Keefe cursed under his breath.

Keefe felt a hand on his shoulder. "Hey," said a voice, and he glanced up to see Fitz seated next to him. "We'll find her. We're going to save her, Keefe. It's going to be alright." Fitz smiled, but Keefe knew that his best friend was just as anxious as he was and was only trying to make Keefe feel better. Keefe shrugged.

"We will," Fitz said, and this time he seemed slightly more determined. "We won't let the Neverseen beat us again."

But at the moment, they had no real plan, other than to search through all of Keefe's house and Lady Gisela's records for clues. All Keefe had left was a small candle of hope, as he held it near to his heart, trying not to let it extinguish even as the storm threatened to blow it out.

In a dark, cold room far away from where the elves were plotting their rescue plan, four figures sat around a polished mahogany table. "We have the girl, now what are we going to with her?" one of them asked, his deep voice resonating in the space.

"Kill her, obviously," another man answered him. "That way the Black Swan can't use her as their pretty little puppet anymore."

"But why waste such a valuable weapon when we have her in our very hands?" a husky female voice suggested.

"You have a point," the first man replied, "but she's the Moonlark. She's not going to cooperate unless we threaten her."

"Torture?" the second man asked. "She deserves it after everything she's done to us." The sadistic grin was audible in the excited tone of his voice.

"No," another woman responded, her voice high and cold. "We already know she won't react to physical pain. Remember what happened when Umber used the shadowflux in her hand? We took her out of action for a while, but she was still willing to endure the pain to save her precious friends. There's only one way to really get in her head."

"What's that?"

"Threaten those she cares about."

 **A/N: Mwehehehe. I haven't written for a while, it's a busy time of year for me in terms of school. I apologize in advance, just a heads up I probably won't write much for the next few weeks because of exams and summatives. Oof ._.**

 **Yay, anyway enjoy the chapter and don't forget to follow, favourite and review!**


	13. Let's Go

The next few days for Sophie were a blur. Most of the time she was under sedatives, but there were patches of consciousness in between, mostly of the Neverseen threatening her. Her mind still fuzzy from the sedative, she woke up one - morning? Night? She wasn't sure - to two hooded figures standing over her as she lay curled on the hard ground of the room where she was being kept.

She was fully brought back to her senses by a sharp pain in her head, and she clutched her temples, looking up to see bright blue eyes underneath the black hood. She recognized those eyes as belonging to Gethen, a skilled Telepath allied with the Neverseen. She bit back a cry of pain despite the ache plaguing her consciousness, for she hated Gethen enough to not show weakness in front of him.

"Want it to stop?" Gethen asked, a sadistic smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. "All you have to do is help us. Believe it or not, we're not evil. We just have different ideas about the world than the Council or your precious Black Swan. It's not our fault that they're too proud and arrogant to accept that sometimes, they're wrong."

Sophie felt like she could scream, the pain in her temples was so intense, but she grit her teeth and hissed through them: "Different ideas, my word. If you really think it's not evil that you're trying to force me to help you express these _different ideas_ through torture, then you need to seek out some mental help. And that's not even mentioning everything else you've done to me and my friends."

"Fine," Gethen said nonchalantly, and Sophie could tell even through the pain that he was suppressing a smile. She knew that even though he did want her to cooperate, he was more than happy to just torture her with his mental attacks.

"Have it your way, then," Gethen said, "after all, it's your pain, not mine. Or maybe we should target your little friends next." Then the throbbing in her temples increased until Sophie felt like she could no longer endure the agony, and she let out a scream of raw pain. She thought if this went on, maybe her body would just split apart into a thousand aching pieces - and then she blacked out.

Keefe paced the floor of Everglen's entrance hall. Dex had managed to hack into Lady Gisela's registry feed, and even despite all of her careful attempts to distort the feed, he had been able to fairly confidently discern a rough area that she had been. Of course, a rough area wasn't exactly the best news, since they still had no clue about any hideouts or what to expect, but it was better than nothing. Because every day they stalled was another day the Neverseen had Sophie, and Keefe didn't even want to imagine the sorts of things his mom and her minions would be doing to her. He felt sick to the stomach even thinking of it.

Assembled in the entrance hall was their rescue team, consisting of Grady, Edaline, Sophie's five bodyguards, Fitz, Biana, Tam, Linh, Dex, Della, and himself, as well as Ro, Lovise, Woltzer, and Grizel. Alden had unfortunately had to leave on Emissary business, but Keefe hoped that they would be able to find and rescue Sophie nonetheless.

Since they had no clue what to expect about where the Neverseen were keeping Sophie, they were prepared for anything. Along with everyone's abilities, they were all armed with throwing stars and daggers concealed in the pockets of their clothes, which were designed by Flori. The adults also carried melders just in case, and Edaline could summon pretty much any other weapon thanks to her ability as a Conjurer.

"Are we all ready?" Grady asked, and the team gave a grave nod. In silent agreement, they marched out the doors of Everglen. Reaching the gate, Biana paused as she inspected a note taped to the gate. Her face paled to an unearthly shade as she pulled the note down from the gate and read it.

"What does it - oh," Keefe gasped as he read the note. _Bring us the Cognate, and we'll stop hurting your precious little Moonlark._ The note was short and to the point, unlike the Black Swan's notes had been when Sophie had first arrived in the Lost Cities, and although the vague, mysterious notes had been frustrating and confusing, this blunt note was like a slap to the face. _We'll stop hurting your precious little Moonlark_. That meant they were torturing her, and suddenly Keefe felt like throwing up.

Grady grabbed the note from Biana's hand, and passed it around the rest of the group. The team, who had already been pretty grim to begin with, looked even more somber. There was an awkward silence, before Fitz cleared his throat and said, " _The Cognate_ has to mean me."

The adults nodded, and Keefe's head spun. How was he supposed to choose between his best friend he had known for years and his girlfriend, whom he loved with all his heart? Besides, they - whoever _they_ was, Ruy and Gisela and possibly some others - hadn't even promised to release Sophie. Just to stop hurting her. And who knows if they would even follow through on that promise? Was Fitz's freedom really worth that little? Then again, he knew what Sophie was going through, and he would do anything to stop her pain, no matter what the cost.

"Fitz, we can't ask you to do this," Edaline said, her voice cracked and fragile. She must be delirious with worry, after losing one daughter already, and with Sophie in so much danger.

"You don't have to," Fitz replied. "I need to do this. I'll do whatever it takes to save Sophie." Even if Fitz didn't like Sophie in that way anymore, she was one of his closest friends, and Keefe knew he would do the same for any of his friends. _Except I already failed to save Sophie,_ he thought, a wave of guilt crashing over him. But he couldn't let it break him. The only way to make things better was if he kept going and saved Sophie.

"There has to be another way," Linh said, voicing the concerns of everyone present, her cheeks flushed with worry over her friends.

"We can still continue with our rescue plan -" _I_ _f you can even call it a plan_ "- and if worst comes to worst, well, we have a backup plan." Even Keefe didn't feel like making any jokes, what with the current situation. The group nodded grimly.

"Well then, let's stop wasting time and let's go," Grady said, pulling out a crystal that led to the approximate location Dex had figured out from Gisela's registry feed. The team grabbed hands and stepped into the beam of light, letting it whisk them away into whatever dangers awaited them.

 **A/N: Yay, I updated! Exams are now over for me so I have a few days to do absolutely nothing before school starts again! So, I have written another chapter. Please, continue to read, review, follow and favourite, and thank you so much for all your continued support!**


	14. Plunging Into Darkness

The group glittered into view in the middle of a forest. It was just an ordinary forest, no building, no Neverseen symbols anywhere, but of course, it was what Keefe had been expecting. It was all about subtlety and secrecy. Not blatant wealth and prestige, like with the Council. In no way did he admire what his mom and her little friends were doing, but he did agree that the Council were a bit too flagrant with their power.

He looked around the forest. "So how far were you able to narrow down Gisela's location? How big of an area do we need to search?"

"We light leaped to approximately the middle of the area," Dex explained. "We need to cover about one hundred metres in all directions." Yes, that was still a lot, and it would have been much more convenient if they could have a precise location, but Keefe knew Dex had tried his best, and it could have been much worse. But still, every moment they wasted was another moment that Sophie was in his mom's hands.

"We need to split up," Grady said. "Edaline and I will cover the north end, along with Flori and Tarina. Keefe, you, Biana, Linh, and Sandor can cover the west. Della, Fitz, and Bo, you take south. That leaves Tam and Dex to go east, and Nubiti will follow you underground." He distributed small coloured flares to Biana, Della and Tam. "If you find anything that could lead to a secret hideout, set off a green flare and we will come. If anyone runs into trouble and needs immediate help, set off a red flare. Now, we should stop wasting time and let's go."

Keefe set off with his group. To the west, there was forest. Actually, there was forest in all directions. No landmarks, nothing to tell which way was which; it all looked the same. Just a bunch of trees. Keefe began scanning the ground, trees and plants for anything that looked the least bit suspicious. It was boring, but the worry buzzing in the back of his mind drove him to look harder. If he missed any little hint, it could mean Sophie suffered a lot more.

About ten minutes of searching had passed when Keefe looked behind him to see a green flare go off. It was coming from the south, where Della, Fitz and Bo had gone. Keefe alerted Biana, Linh and Sandor before running off toward the green light.

They had made it about halfway to the others when a second flare went off, this one red. Uh-oh. Keefe pushed his legs faster, and he arrived in time to see Fitz and Bo contained in a force field in a clearing. Della was in a separate force field. She had likely tried to stay invisible, but setting off the red flare had revealed her location, allowed her captor to trap her. Standing in the trees at the edge of the clearing, Keefe, Biana, Linh and Sandor hadn't been spotted yet, but then again, they hadn't spotted the attacker yet either. It had to be a Psionipath, probably Ruy. Keefe scanned the tree line, wondering if their attacker was hiding the same way they were. He couldn't spot anyone, until Linh whispered in his ear, "There." Keefe followed her gaze to a small strip of black cloak sticking out of a pine tree. The hiding place was effective, but likely uncomfortable. "What do we do?" Linh whispered.

"Whatever we do, we need to take them by surprise and take them out in one shot," he replied. "Otherwise they'll just put us in a force field too."

"I've got this," Biana said. She pulled out a small dagger from a hidden pocket in her top. Without further explanation, she disappeared and presumably headed toward the pine tree.

Keefe and Linh glanced at each other. Keefe knew Biana was angry after the way Vespera had hurt her, but he also remembered Umber. If Biana was planning on killing the Psionipath, that would make them just as bad as the Neverseen, not to mention the fact that Biana would have to live with the guilt of it. Guilt was not good for fragile elvin minds. But there was nothing they could do about it now. The others all ran up to join Keefe, Linh and Sandor just as a scream sounded from the other side of the clearing.

Biana reappeared right next to the pine tree, a throwing star lodged in her right shoulder. She collapsed on the ground next to the tree, red staining the roots of the tree. Then something strange happened: the roots next to Biana began slowly moving aside to form a hole, almost like a tunnel, in the ground.

 _Remember the green flare? That tunnel might just be the entrance to their hideout,_ Fitz transmitted. _I think maybe Biana's blood opened it? We need to check it out. Can I open my thoughts to all of yours?_

The group nodded. _But we can't just walk up to the tunnel and go in_ , Linh pointed out. _There's a Psionipath sitting in the pine tree above the tunnel._

 _And how come Biana suddenly turned visible again when she reach the tree?_ Tam wondered.

 _I can sense some sort of technology surrounding that tree_ , Dex thought, his eyebrows scrunched up in concentration. _I think maybe they did something to it so that when you touch it your abilities turn off. Sort of like the ability restrictor I once made._ His cheeks flushed, remembering the bad memory.

 _Damn it,_ Keefe swore. _So we need a way to get that guard out of the picture without our abilities. Great._

 _We need a distraction,_ Edaline suggested. _Something to get the guard to look the other way while a few of us can enter the tunnel._

 _What if a few of us sneak behind the guard, set off a flare to get his attention, and then distract him in combat while the rest of us sneak into the tunnel?_ Keefe thought.

 _Good plan,_ Grady replied. _Tam, if you could also conceal the group going into the tunnel with shadowvapor for as long as you can, that would also help._

 _I can do that,_ said Tam.

 _Good. Then you, Keefe, Fitz, Linh and I can sneak into the tunnel. Edaline, your conjuring abilities can help you with distractions, and Dex, I was thinking you could use some of your gadgets as well, if you wouldn't mind?_

The group nodded assent. _What about Biana?_ Tam asked, looking worried.

 _The bodyguards can get her and help with distractions,_ Fitz suggested. _The tunnel looks too big for Bo or Tarina to fit through anyway, and Flori can help with healing Biana._

 _Okay. Sounds like we have a plan,_ Grady announced. _Bo, Nubiti, Tarina, Flori, Dex, and Edaline, you six should probably sneak to the other side of the clearing now._ And wordlessly, they went.

When they saw a green flare go up from the other side of the pine tree, Keefe, Tam, Grady, Linh and Fitz grabbed hands, staying as close together as possible while Tam spread shadows over them. Then they raced forward to the tunnel and, one by one, plunged into darkness.

 **A/N: What will happen to Sophie and her friends? Find out in the next chapter!**

 **I just want to say, thank you so much to everyone who has ever reviewed this story. I kid you not, your kind words touch my heart. Earlier I received an especially nice review and it made my day and also inspired me to write another chapter, so thanks everyone! This story is for you!**


	15. Very Temporary Relief

Once Tam, Grady, Keefe, Fitz and Linh had entered the tunnel, Tam got rid of the shadows surrounding them. It was pretty dark in the tunnel anyway, and he figured it was better to save his energy in case they might need it later. So they continued on in the semi-darkness of the tunnel.

The walls were solidly packed earth, making the passage cold and damp. Somebody had tried to create a boardwalk of sorts, which was really just a few planks scattered here and there, creating more of a tripping hazard than a convenience. The group proceeded slowly and cautiously, both so that they wouldn't trip and, although none of them would admit it, because they might have been just a little bit nervous. Tam instinctively reached out to grab Linh's hand, as he was used to being there for his sister, but pulled back when he realized Fitz had already taken her other hand, explaining the faint blush on her cheeks just barely visible in the darkness. He smiled to himself, and although he did feel a little protective and would rip Fitz's internal organs out if he hurt Linh, there were far worse people in the world than Fitz, and he wanted Linh to be happy. He might never be satisfied, but at least his sister could have that.

Tam mentally smacked himself. This was no time to be brooding over his own problems. Sophie's life was in danger, and Sophie was one of his closest friends. His focus returned to the task at hand, and the small group continued to advance until the tunnels began to change.

The five of them soon reached an intersection where the path split into left and right. Tam also noted that shortly after the path split, the walls of the tunnel changed into rough, mossy boards that appeared to have been thrown together. That and the makeshift "boardwalk" led him to believe that the tunnel system had been hastily constructed, or else whoever made it was just really bad at construction.

Keefe cleared his throat. "So which way do we go?"

Silence. The group thought. They were so accustomed to having Sophie's Telepathy skills for this kind of job that they were a bit flabbergasted. But it seemed Grady had an idea. "Fitz, I know your Telepathy isn't quite as accurate as Sophie's-"

Fitz dropped Linh's hand and his face turned beet red, even in the dim light of the tunnel. " _Excuse me?_ " he sputtered.

"Whoa, whoa," Grady said, putting his hands out. "I didn't mean it like that. I just meant that whereas Sophie can track thoughts to a precise location, your strengths lie in other areas. But do you think you could try tracking Sophie's thoughts? I mean, it's not like we have any better ideas," he added when Fitz continued to glare in his direction. But Fitz swallowed his pride and managed a nod, although he was still fuming. He put his hands to his temples and closed his eyes in concentration.

After a few minutes of everyone growing anxious, Fitz opened his eyes and lowered his hands. "I can detect her thoughts, but only very faintly. I think the pulse is coming from that way though," he added, pointing to the tunnel on the right. His anger seemed to have dissipated as he remembered the urgency of the situation.

The group headed off to the right, moving faster and more urgently than before. As the walls turned to wooden instead of earthen, doors also started appearing at random intervals along the walls. They didn't have runes or anything like they had previously seen during their missions in the Neverseen's hideouts. They were just plain but very heavy-looking wooden doors, all of them secured with padlocks. Tam wondered what could be behind all of them.

After a few more intersections where Fitz hesitantly led them down what they hoped was the correct path, Fitz, who had been in the lead, stopped abruptly in front of one of the doors. "This one," he said, and everybody understood without him having to clarify. Sophie was behind that door. A cloud of fear and apprehension settled in the tunnel. The door, like all the others, had a large padlock around the latch. "I'm going to try transmitting to Sophie," he whispered. The rest of the group fell silent, knowing that it might not be just Sophie behind that door. The air was tense and almost electric.

 _Sophie?_ Fitz transmitted. He waited a few seconds, but there was no response.

He tried again. _Sophie, it's me. It's Fitz._

Still no response.

 _Sophie, we're here to save you. SOPHIE!_ he mentally screamed, using extra mental energy to make the transmission louder than usual. It worked, and he got a weak reply after a few moments.

 _Fitz?_ Sophie's thoughts sounded a lot smaller and more broken than usual, but she was alive. A sigh of relief washed over him.

 _Sophie. Listen, we're here to rescue you. Are you okay?_

 _I'll be fine_ , she said, though it didn't sound convincing.

 _Are you alone in there, and do you have any idea how we can open the door? There's some sort of padlock._

 _I don't know about the door,_ Sophie said, _but there are two others in here. Hurry._ Then she severed the connection, whether from mental exhaustion, pain, or some other reason, Fitz didn't know. He quickly relayed the information to the rest of the group, and noticed more than one hand reach for throwing stars in hidden pockets, just as a precaution.

"First we need to open the door," Keefe stated.

"How observant of you to notice that," Tam remarked.

"Now, now," said Grady. "Any ideas?"

Tam reluctantly stepped forward. "I've been practicing a new trick with my Mentor. But I'm not sure if it'll work. I can try, though."

"We need every trick we've got," Linh replied. Tam stepped up the padlock, examining it. It was heavy and made of metal, but was a bit rusty. Tam concentrated on gathering the shadows, which were abundant in the darkened tunnel. He formed them into a black, dense mass, and sent them into the keyhole. Using the shadows to feel around the lock and fill the space in the keyhole, he compressed them even more until he had a shadow key that was almost solid it was so dense. He twisted it gently in the lock until he heard the soft _click_ of the lock being opened. He removed it from the latch and slowly pushed the heavy door open.

Sophie was curled up in a ball in the corner. She must have been under sedatives, because she looked too weak to do much more than lift her lead. At least, Tam hoped it was only sedatives. He didn't even want to think about the alternative. As a group, the five of them rushed to her side, and temporarily forgot that Fitz had said there were two others in the room. They were too relieved to see Sophie again that they didn't even notice when a tall, slim figure stepped out of a door coming off the left side of the room.

"Well, well, well," she drawled, causing them all to turn around suddenly. She wore a black cloak, but wasn't wearing the hood, so they could clearly identify her. Vespera. Fitz turned red with anger again, remembering what she had done to Biana the last time they saw her.

A second figure stepped out of the doorway behind Vespera. Gethen. He also wasn't wearing his hood, and his piercing blue eyes seemed to penetrate the cold, damp air. "So they took the bait," he said, his voice amused. "Their precious Moonlark is worth that much to them. Interesting."

"We're here in the room," Keefe snapped. "You don't have to talk like we're not. What do you want with Sophie?" Driven by anger, he whipped out a throwing star from his pocket, but before he could release it, he doubled over in pain. Gethen wore a cruel smile on his pale face. Him and his damned mental attacks.

"Take another step, and you'll all be out cold before you can blink," he smirked. "Or should I target your Moonlark next?" In the corner, Sophie suddenly brought her hands to her temples, her teeth gritted as she let out a yelp of pain through them.

"That's enough, Gethen," Vespera commanded, and Sophie stopped grimacing, although she was still clutching her head and looked to be in a lot of pain. "Now, come along with us. None of you are going anywhere anytime soon."

 **A/N: I have updated! Decided to throw in a bit of Tam's POV to make things more interesting. I promise, Sophie will eventually get rescued. Until then, keep reading, reviewing and being awesome! :) Almost 10,000 views! Thanks guys 3**


	16. Back Towards Normal

A third figure emerged from the door at the side of the cell. Like the others, he was not wearing his hood. It was Ruy. Grady looked ready to charge at him, but before anyone could move the five of them were encased in a glowing force field. Grady let out a growl of anger and frustration, but Tam was already working on letting his shadows seep into the force field, breaking it down. Within a few minutes it was gone and the group was left facing Ruy, Vespera and Gethen again. Ruy chuckled to himself, simply creating another force field around them. Tam was ready to break it down with shadows again, when Fitz put a hand on his arm. "Stop!"

Tam glanced up at Fitz, confused. "But we need to rescue Sophie."

"Exactly," Fitz reasoned, "and you can't do that if you're exhausted. We can't just keep breaking down his force fields, because every time we get rid of one he can just make another. He's trying to tire you out. We need a plan."

Grady cleared his throat. "I don't want to do this, but unless anyone has any better ideas Tam can break down the force field again and I can use my ability to stop Ruy from creating any more, and possibly take him out."

When no one else said anything, Keefe replied with "That's the best plan we have," so Tam began to use his shadows again. The force field melted away, and Ruy looked like he was about to make another one when he froze, one arm in front of him, before smacking himself repeatedly in the head.

"Target the Mesmer!" Vespera shouted, and Keefe could see Gethen concentrating as Grady screwed up his face as if in pain. Keefe lunged towards Gethen. However, Grady still made Ruy walk over to the hard wall and bang his head on it, knocking him out cold, before releasing his hold on Ruy and collapsing on the ground. No more force fields. At least that eliminated one problem. But now Grady appeared to have passed out, and Vespera and Gethen were still there. Gethen used his mental attacks, shooting a blinding headache into the heads of Keefe, Fitz, Linh and Tam. Keefe blinked until he could see straight again, although there was still a drilling pain in his temples.

Keefe pulled out his throwing stars from his pockets and began firing them randomly towards Gethen and Vespera. Linh, Tam and Fitz were all also trying to dispel the dizzying pain from their heads, and Tam and Linh were trying futilely to summon shadowvapour and water respectively.

Gethen and Vespera seemed to be agile enough to dodge most of Keefe's attacks, but after a few moments Fitz also grabbed his throwing stars and started helping Keefe. Eventually one of Keefe's projectiles clipped Gethen in the shoulder. The pain in his temples temporarily subsided, and Keefe seized the moment to run in and kick Gethen hard enough in the head to knock him out, and maybe give him a good concussion. At that moment Keefe wasn't really thinking, more just acting in the spur of the moment.

Although there was still Vespera to deal with, the mental pain had now completely subsided and with the combination of Tam's shadows, Linh's water, and Keefe and Fitz's throwing stars she was no match for the four of them. Soon she was lying on the floor next to Gethen and Ruy.

There were a few moments of awkward silence as the four stood in the middle of the room, observing the bodies of their attackers, as well as Grady and Sophie, who were still lying on the floor. "We need to go," Fitz said, although it took a few more moments before any of them moved. Keefe and Fitz picked up Grady between the two of them, while Linh and Tam handled the much lighter Sophie. Then they all ran, or tried their best to run while carrying Grady and Sophie. Back towards home, back towards their waiting families. And hopefully, back towards normal.

 **A/N: Yeah it's a short chapter, I know, and I know it's been a while since I've updated. To anybody with the patience to bear with my erratic updating, thanks! Hope you enjoy the new chapter!**


	17. Twinkle, Twinkle

Several minutes later, the group was gathered in the massive living room at Everglen. After exiting the tunnels, they had leaped to Everglen, and had found that the bodyguards, as well as Dex, Edaline and Biana, had already arrived. Dex, Edaline and the bodyguards were sitting nervously around the living room, Edaline wringing her hands together. All three of them looked stressed and worried. Alden and Della were also there, and had informed them that Biana was resting in her bedroom with some salve on her shoulder that Elwin, who was standing in the corner, had applied.

Sophie and Grady were set down carefully on couches. Edaline immediately rushed over to her adoptive daughter, who was unconscious and extremely pale. Edaline gently wrapped her arms around Sophie, careful not to be too rough.

Elwin examined first Sophie and then Grady. "There's nothing I can really do to them for at the moment," he announced. "Sophie just needs to sleep off all the sedatives they gave her, and then maybe a few elixirs just to make sure she's good and healthy, and Grady should be okay once he wakes up from the concussion. I'll leave a few elixirs for him as well." Elwin handed Edaline a small satchel, which was presumably filled with vials of brightly coloured liquid. Edaline thanked him, and Della thanked him again for healing Biana before he leaped away.

There was a brief moment of quiet while everyone looked on worriedly at Sophie and Grady. Alden was the one who finally broke it. "I think we all need to get some rest," he said. They were all quite exhausted from their journey, not to mention all of the stress and anxiety they had been put through. Within a few minutes, Sophie's bodyguards and Edaline had leaped home carrying Sophie and Grady. Tam and Linh left shortly before they did. Keefe remained at Everglen a moment longer, unsure where he should head. He really didn't feel like going back home at the moment. So before he could change his mind, he set his pathfinder to Havenfield and let the light sweep him away.

He walked to the front door of Havenfield and gently pushed the door open. The front room was empty, so he went upstairs to the bedrooms. He could hear Edaline's soft voice coming from hers and Grady's bedroom, whispering something to her husband. He slowly pushed open the door to Sophie's room, being extra quiet so as not to wake her. Sophie slept on her large plush bed, looking not quite peaceful, but restful at least. He pulled up a chair and sat next to the bed.

Keefe pushed a stray strand of pale blonde hair out of her closed eyes. He sat with her for a while, just looking at her, so glad to have her back. It hurt him so much when she was taken, especially knowing he was there and he let her surrender herself. While she was gone, he had hated himself, furious that he hadn't been strong enough to protect her. Although that hatred still simmered somewhere deep inside him, he pushed it away for now. He was too happy and relieved that Sophie was back to care about anything else at the moment.

Keefe glanced at Sophie's windows. Through a small crack in the curtains, he glimpsed the creamy whitish-yellow moon in the night sky, hanging over the deep blue ocean. It looked so pretty, and Keefe was reminded of a lullabye he had once heard as a child. Although he didn't know where he would have heard it, and couldn't imagine either of his parents ever singing him lullabies, the soft melody stirred a sort of nostalgic peace inside him. Although he knew he had never been the greatest singer, Keefe began to quietly sing.

 _"_ Twinkle, _twinkle, little star_

 _How I wonder what you are"_

Sophie was his little star. She was always shining, and her golden hair shimmered like stars in the sky. Yet he was always wondering what she was, how she managed to be so amazing at everything and so kind and powerful. He didn't understand how she had survived living among humans her entire childhood, but he loved her all the more for it. He didn't care that her genes were altered to turn her into some sort of superpowered Moonlark, because she was just his Sophie.

 _"Up above the world so high,_

 _Like a diamond in the sky"_

She was a diamond, so high up, so much more talented than every other elf he knew. Yet she wasn't snobby or arrogant about it. Sure, she had five abilities, when it was usually rare if an elf even had two, but she still liked him, a single-abilited loser Empath with maniac parents. It was so unbelievable, so unreal that Sophie Foster would ever like him, Keefe Sencen. It felt so surreal and so wonderful.

 _"Twinkle, twinkle, little star,_

 _How I wonder what you are."_

Keefe finished his lullaby and planted a very soft kiss on the top of Sophie's head, careful not to disturb her sleep. She needed rest. In fact, so did Keefe. Within a few minutes, his eyelids were falling shut as he sat on the chair next to Sophie's bed. At that moment, he didn't care what would happen when Sophie's parents found him the next morning, or when he would eventually have to go home again and face his dad. He momentarily forgot that Sophie had just been rescued after being captured by terrible people. Keefe was sleeping peacefully next to the one person he loved most, and there was no better feeling in the world.

 **A/N: Yes, I updated two days in a row! Miraculous, right? I hope you enjoy the fluff, I really enjoyed writing it (and it was way better than working on my summative! Procrastination, am I right?)**


	18. A Family Reunion

After the long, sedative-induced sleep had worn off, Sophie awoke to the sun shining through the gap between her curtains in her room at Havenfield. She couldn't describe how glad she was to be back, safe in her own room in her own house with her own family. She yawned blearily, snuggling into her covers, and glanced to the left. Keefe was sitting in her chair a few feet away, his head dropping down to his chest, his eyes closed and his messy blonde hair dangling into his face. He looked so peaceful, so content, that Sophie could tell he was reflecting her own feelings even though she wasn't an Empath.

Judging by the sun's position the sky, Sophie concluded that it was already well into the afternoon. Gosh, she had slept for a long time. She wondered how long Keefe had been waiting in her chair for her to wake up, and at what point he had fallen asleep. That was dedication, watching over her like that and wanting to stay by her side, even after he had just come back from rescuing her and was probably exhausted. It was one of the reasons she loved him; he was so loyal and so dedicated to everything he did.

Sophie finally decided that she couldn't stay in bed all day, so she climbed out from under her plush covers, shivering when she left the warmth. She grabbed something to wear from her closet, not caring what it was, too focused on enjoying the fact that she was back at home. She put on her tunic and leggings and was in the process of brushing her hair when she heard a light knock at her door. "Sophie?" a fragile voice called.

"Come in," Sophie replied, and the door was slowly pushed open by her adoptive mother Edaline, who held a platter of mallowmelt and ripplefluffs and all the other elvin sweets Sophie could possibly dream of. Grady was behind Edaline, fully recovered and beaming at his daughter. Edaline set down her platter, Sophie dropped her comb and the three of them wrapped their arms against each other.

Her parents' tears soaked into her clean tunic, but Sophie didn't care. She simply wept into Grady's shoulder as the three of them stood there for a very long time, saying nothing, simply embracing each other. The relief was tangible; the happy family was reunited once more.

When they finally pulled apart, they found Keefe awake and standing in the corner of the room. "Sorry," he muttered. "I didn't mean to interrupt your family reunion." He jammed his hands in his pockets awkwardly, but Grady just pulled him closer and hugged him tight.

"Thank you," Grady said. That was all that needed to be said. Sophie had a feeling her father wouldn't be calling Keefe That Boy again.

Several minutes and several tears of joy later, the four of them made their way downstairs, where Sophie was surprised to see that Alden, Della, and the rest of her friends were all waiting. She hugged all of them, not caring that she felt like she was in some sort of cheesy family movie with a cliche happy ending. She knew this wasn't the ending, and that there might not ever even be an ending. But she was okay with that, as long as she could be with her friends and family. For a while they sat, talking and eating mallowmelt and ripplefluffs until their stomachs hurt from the food and their cheeks hurt from laughter. Everything was as it should be again.

After an hour or so, Alden, Della and Sophie's friends all left, leaving Sophie with some time to recuperate and relax. After all, just the previous day she had been a captive of some of the worst elves alive. Keefe stayed behind, not wanting to leave her side even again. Although her parents encouraged her to rest, she had just slept for God knows how long and she and Keefe decided to spend the afternoon helping her parents around Havenfield. Keefe stayed with them for supper, and they ate together, like one big happy family. Although Keefe felt a bit out of place, these people were the kind, loving family he had never known, and they were all overjoyed to have him there, so he stayed.

After dinner, Keefe and Sophie headed back outside. They wandered in silence for a while, just soaking in each other's presence. It felt so good for them to be back relaxing together again, and when Sophie was around Keefe she felt a deep, warm feeling of safety and hope and such intense love that she had never felt around anyone else. The feeling made her want to curl up next to Keefe and lie there forever, safe for eternity in his arms. Instead, she took his hand in hers and squeezed it gently. When he squeezed it back, she knew he felt the same way.

 **A/N: Thank you Rain and Shadows for your kind and inspiring words, and thanks for motivating me to keep writing! (and thanks everyone else too :D) Finally, the happy ending is coming together!**


	19. When All Is Said and Done

Two blonde elves sat under a beautiful Panakes tree in a field, the sun shining on the ocean winking back at them from the bottom of the cliffs. The male elf was tall and lean, and he sat cross-legged in the grass at the base of the tree. The girl was sitting to his right, staring out at the water below. Slowly, hesitantly, the boy leaned close to her and planted a gentle kiss on her cheek. She turned, her wide brown eyes staring into his ice-blue ones.

"I'm so sorry," Keefe whispered, his voice choked with emotion, as he bowed his head towards the ground and felt his cheeks heat up in shame. But Sophie took his hand in her own small, pale one.

"It's okay, Keefe," she said, looking up at him. "It wasn't your fault. I was the one who agreed to hand myself over. There was nothing you could have done to stop me. You've seen what guilt can do to elves, so stop blaming yourself. It's not your fault."

"But I should have done something," Keefe protested, taking his hand away from Sophie's even though it hurt him so much to do so. "I don't deserve you. He..." His voice broke. "Fitz would've done something to save you. Anybody else would have. But I didn't." A solitary tear slipped down his cheek, but he didn't even bother to wipe it away.

Sophie did it for him, before grasping his hand again. This time, she wouldn't let him let go. "Keefe, I already told you. There was nothing you could do. I made up my mind to go with them, and no one, not Fitz nor anyone else, could have done anything to change my mind. So let it go." It was her turn to kiss her boyfriend on the cheek. _Boyfriend._ After what they had all been through, _boyfriend_ seemed like too shallow a word to describe their relationship. It sounded like something out of a cringe-worthy stereotypical teenage girl movie. But it didn't matter, she supposed. As long as it was Keefe.

"Are you sure?" Keefe asked, but Sophie only nodded and pressed her lips to his. The kiss was tender and gentle, and Keefe tried to memorize the feeling of Sophie's lips on his own. The little dimple above her top lip, the way her mouth fit perfectly onto his own, the way her blonde hair brushed his shoulders, the smell of cinnamon and honey. When they broke apart, Keefe cleared his throat. "I'm sorry about this too." He pushed back the sleeve of his tunic, revealing a still-healing scar on his wrist. Sophie didn't want to look at it, but she couldn't look away.

"Keefe, you don't need to apologize about that. Yes, you had me worried sick for a long time. Yes, I was scared that you would-" she decided not to finish that sentence. "But when all is said and done, Keefe, you're the best person I know. Your bright eyes, your sense of humour, your vivid imagination, your knack for annoying me and making me laugh at the same time. And yes, your hair." She rolled her eyes at that, before kissing him again and wrapping her arms around him, this time more passionate, still with the same tenderness and caution of the previous kiss, but more confident. This was Keefe, her Keefe. And she was his Sophie.

Sophie closed her eyes and let the feelings take over, the love for Keefe swelling inside her chest, the heat of the kiss blossoming through her skin, and the sea breeze blowing through her hair.

 **A/N (the final A/N of this story): Yes that's right! It's a short and sweet last chapter! Thank you so much everyone for your continued support of this story. 13k views, 46 reviews, 19 followers and 18 favourites. It's the most I've ever gotten, and the first time I've finished a published fanfiction longer than just a one-shot. So thank you everyone 3**


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